The sluggish U.S. job market deteriorated further last week, adding to troubling signs for an economy that barely grew in the final quarter of 2007, according to government reports on Thursday.
Labor Department data showed first-time claims for jobless benefits increased by 19,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 373,000, a level considered to be near-recessionary by some and raising risks of a poor monthly payrolls report next week.
Separate data showed gross domestic product, which measures total goods and service output in the United States, rose in the fourth quarter at a glacial annual rate of 0.6 percent, slowing almost to a halt from the rapid 4.9 percent pace in the previous three months.
The growth rate was the same as the Commerce Department's first estimate delivered a month ago, defying expectations of an upward revision and heightening fears that the world's largest economy may slip into recession this year.
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