Jobless Claims Up; Durable Goods Dip

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The number of people who lost their jobs because of hurricanes Katrina and Rita has climbed above the half-million mark, and orders for durable goods fell in September.


The Labor Department reported Thursday that an additional 24,000 people who lost jobs because of the devastating Gulf Coast storms filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, pushing the total over the past eight weeks to 502,000 hurricane-related claims.


In a separate report, the Commerce Department said that orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket durable goods fell by 2.1 percent in September as demand for civilian aircraft fell sharply. Outside the volatile transportation sector, demand for durable goods was down by 1 percent.


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