Nearly 10,000 workers who lost their jobs because of Hurricane Katrina filed for unemployment benefits last week, the first wave of what likely will be hundreds of thousands of displaced workers seeking benefits.
The Labor Department said Thursday that the 10,000 figure was an estimate of the number of disaster-related claims based on spot checks with claims offices in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and neighboring states such as Texas who have agreed to accept benefit applications from workers who have relocated from the hurricane areas. Overall, a total of 319,000 newly laid off workers filed for claims last week, a slight drop of 1,000 from the previous week.
