Volume of US jobless claims exceeds outlooks surging by 37,000

Despite US economy is expanding, higher-than-expected number of Americans claimed for unemployment benefits last week.

Thus far, Initial jobless claims unexpectedly jumped to 464,000 that appeared to be 37,000 growth in the week ended July 17, according to Labor Department data released in Washington.

Earlier the volume of claims was anticipated to reach 445,000. The number of people receiving unemployment insurance and those getting extended payments dropped.

The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits dropped by 223,000 in the week ended July 10 to 4.49 million. The figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.

Those who’ve used up traditional benefits and are now collecting emergency and extended payments decreased by about 368,000 to 3.93 million in the week ended July 3 after Congress failed to pass legislation extending the assistance.

According to analysts’ estimations, these figures underline that a lack of jobs will restrain consumer spending, the biggest part of the economy, and lead to slower growth in the second half of the year.

And, as Ben Bernanke told Congress Thursday, it would take a “significant amount of time” to restore the almost 8.5 million jobs lost in 2008 and 2009.