The number of people filing for unemployment last week took the biggest jump up in two months. The Labor Department says 385,000 Americans filed for jobless benefits.
The government reported that some of the increase was due to disruptions caused by Hurricane Issac. It blamed the storm for 9,000 of the new applications.
Analysts, however, noted that even accounting for the impact of the storm the report points to continued weakness in the job market.
Thursday's number of 385,000 new claims comes on the heels of last week's national jobless report that showed the number people in the labor force is the lowest it's been since 1981.
