The number of Americans thrown out of work by Hurricane Katrina climbed by another 60,000 last week, pushing the total number of unemployed workers seeking jobless benefits because of the storm to 279,000.
The 279,000 total Katrina-related claims included a revised 108,000 claims filed two weeks ago, a figure that had originally been put at 103,000 claims. In the first two weeks after the storm hit, claims had totaled 20,000 and 91,000. The overall jobless applications filed last week totaled 356,000, a drop of 79,000 from the previous week’s level of 435,000, which had been the highest weekly total in more than two years.
