The Department of Labor has released its report on new national jobless claims in the week ending September 20th, showing that new claims unexpectedly increased to their highest level in nearly seven years.

Initial jobless claims rose to 493,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 461,000. This is the highest level since the weeks after the 9/11 attacks. Economists had expected jobless claims to decrease.

The unexpected increase was partly due to the effects of Hurricane Gustav in Louisiana and Hurricane Ike in Texas, which the Labor Department estimated added approximately 50,000 claims to the total.

Continuing claims in the week ending September 13th rose to 3.5 million from the preceding week’s revised level of 3.48 million.

With the continued decrease in employment, the unemployment rate unexpectedly jumped to 6.1% in August from 5.7% in July. The increase came as a surprise to economists, who had expected the unemployment rate to remain unchanged.

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