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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Initial jobless claims rose for the week ending Jan. 22, reversing a decline in initial filings the week before that many observers had hoped signaled an improvement in the jobs picture.

Initial claims for unemployment compensation benefits rose by 51,000 to 454,000 last week, up from 403,000 the week before, the U.S. Department of Labor announced in a statement Thursday.

Although the number of Americans filing initial jobless claims often goes up and down on a weekly basis, the increase in claims was more than many economists had expected. Many observers had become optimistic after initial jobless claims dipped below 400,000 four weeks ago and had hoped the figures would stay below that threshold, but that did not happen.

Moreover, it looks unlikely that the jobs picture will improve much as many state governments announced plans to cut state workers. Georgia plans to cut 14,000 state jobs, New York plans to cut more than 10,000 workers and Texas lawmakers plan to cut 9,300 jobs.

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Jan. 15, the latest week such data is available, were Florida (+6,646) and Nevada (+242), while the largest decreases were in New York (-28,714), Georgia (-19,429), North Carolina (-16,132), Pennsylvania (-14,859) and California (-14,309), according to DOL.

The total number of Americans claiming benefits in all unemployment compensation programs for the week ending Jan. 8 was 9,410,977.

In addition, extended benefits were still available in 35 states and the District of Columbia. Those states were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

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