According to The U.S. Labor Department, new weekly claims for unemployment benefits jumped by 66,000 to 374,000 last week, the highest in six months.

One-fourth of the new claims were due to private-sector workers filing for unemployment in result of the government shutdown.

Thursdays claims report did not include any federal workers on furlough. Those are reported with a one week delay, so the numbers may be even higher.

From Huffington Post:

While we’re all focused on whether or not Congress will raise the debt ceiling in time to avoid a nightmarish government default, the government shutdown is already here and doing real damage.[…] House Republicans seem close to agreeing to a short-term increase of the government’s borrowing limit, which will temporarily delay the possibility of government default. But they are apparently not as interested in an immediate end to the government shutdown, now in its second week and costing the economy $160 million per day, according to one estimate. Workers are feeling the brunt, in what was already a sluggish labor market.

Read more at Huffington Post

National parks, museums and some public Head Start programs were forced to closed their doors due to the government shutdown.

Just about all of America is sick of the shutdown.

Hopefully our nation’s leader can come to a resolution that has our best interests in mind.

Thoughts on the unemployment claims increasing?

Sound off below!