4.6 million jobless get benefits

WASHINGTON - The number of laid-off workers drawing unemployment checks jumped more than expected to 4.6 million at the end of December, the government reported yesterday. Economists said the tally was likely to keep climbing this year as Americans were finding it increasingly difficult to get a new job amid a deepening recession.

The Labor Department's report also said first-time applications for jobless benefits dropped to 467,000 last week. But economists largely described that decline as a distortion, reflecting the government's difficulty in making seasonal adjustments over the holiday period. Even with the dip, the figure still signaled trouble in the labor market. A year ago, initial claims stood at 330,000.

With employers' throttling back hiring, the unemployment rate is expected to jump from 6.7 percent in November to 7 percent in December, which would be the highest in 151/2 years. The government releases that report today.

"This year was slower than normal for sure," said Douglas Fearon, managing director of the Rosen Group Inc., referring to 2008's figures.

Fearon said that when companies started needing recruiters, it would be a sign that the economy was turning. His firm, a temporary-staffing and recruitment agency in Cherry Hill, specializes in human resources professionals.

In one measure of employment activity, the number of online job advertisements tracked by Monster.com, Philadelphia had the steepest year-over-year decline in job opportunities advertised on the Web among 28 metropolitan areas surveyed. The drop was for last month, compared with December 2007 and included nearly every job category, from office and administrative support to construction to legal services.

Persistent economic woes plus a flurry of layoff announcements in the opening days of 2009 all point to another terrible year for job-seekers, economists said.

The government's report showed that the number of people collecting unemployment benefits rose a sharp 101,000 for the week ending Dec. 27, the most recent period for which information was available. It was worse than the 4.5 million level of claims economists had expected.

That increase left recipients at the highest since November 1982, when the country was emerging from a deep recession, though the labor force has grown about half since then. A year ago, this figure was about 2.7 million.

Some economists said they believed the number of people drawing unemployment benefits could rise as high as 5.5 million this year - even if a government stimulus package is enacted.

President-elect Barack Obama called for a bold approach.

"I don't believe it's too late to change course, but it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible," he said yesterday.