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Jobless claims soar as growth stalls

Thursday, April 3, 2003 | 9:43 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- New claims for unemployment benefits shot up last week to their highest point in nearly a year as businesses made work forces leaner amid a muddled wartime economic climate.

The Labor Department reported today that new applications jumped by a seasonally adjusted 38,000 to 445,000 for the week ending March 29. That represented the highest level of new claims since the week ending April 13, 2002.

"It is the pall of the Iraqi war, higher energy prices and lower stock prices just weighing on the willingness of companies to maintain jobs," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com. "The uncertainty is so high they just can't think about expanding their businesses at this point."

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