However, the government attributed much of the big jump to a special outreach program to notify people that they could qualify for up to 13 weeks of additional benefits because of legislation Congress passed in June.
Jobless Claims Jump Linked to Outreach Effort
WASHINGTON (AP) - July 31, 2008
The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of
applications for jobless benefits soared to 448,000, an increase of
44,000 from the previous week. That was far worse than the decline
of 8,000 that economists had been expecting.
