Jobless Claims Rose By 11,000 Last Week; Prices Rose 0.4 Percent In August

The number of people filling first-time claims for unemployment insurance rose by 11,000 last week from the week before, the Employment and Training Administration just reported.

There were 428,000 such claims. After peaking at 659,000 in March 2009, weekly claims started to edge down. But they've remained near or above 400,000 since early April of this year.

Reuters calls today's report a sign that a weak economy is "sapping an already beleaguered labor market."

Also this hour, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that consumer prices rose 0.4 percent in August from July, and have gone up 3.8 percent in the past year. The agency says "the seasonally adjusted increase ... was broad-based, with continuing increases in the indexes for gasoline, food, shelter, and apparel."

Bloomberg News says the increase was more than the 0.2 percent that many economists expected.

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