This morning from the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON - The number of new people signing up for unemployment benefits last week shot up to the highest level in more than two years, fresh evidence of the damage to a national economy clobbered by housing, credit and financial crises.

The Labor Department reported today that new applications filed for unemployment insurance jumped by a seasonally adjusted 38,000 to 407,000 for the week ending March 29. The increase left claims at their highest point since Sept. 17, 2005, following the blows of the devastating Gulf Coast hurricanes.

"This report supports the view that the jobs market is deteriorating toward recessionary conditions," said T.J. Marta, a fixed-income strategist at RBC Capital Markets.

The latest snapshot of labor activity was worse than economists had anticipated. They had predicted claims would be much lower, around 365,000.

Good commentary from The Capital Spectator:

No one should be surprised by this morning's discouraging news on weekly jobless claims, which surged to 407,000 last week--the highest since the anomalous but temporary spike in September 2005 directly after Hurricane Katrina. The warning signs have been bubbling for months. And so, this time, the rise in new filings for unemployment insurance is a reflection of a weak economy rather than a one-time weather event. In short, there will be no sudden and sharp drop in new claims this time, as there was in 2005.