http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/090319/business_us_usa_economy_jobless.html?sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=TBD&ccode=TBD

Those numbers add up
To the part they never show
It's now over 5 million
On the unemployment rolls

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast 652,000 new claims.

The number of people staying on the benefits roll after drawing an initial week of aid surged 185,000 to 5.47 million in the week ended March 7, the latest week for which the data is available, from 5.29 million the previous week. This was the highest on record and pushed the insured unemployment rate to 4.1 percent from 3.9 percent the week before, the highest since June 1983.

The four-week moving average for new claims, considered to be a better gauge of underlying trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose to 654,750, the highest since