NEW YORK - August 5, 2010 - The week ended July 31 saw 479,000 initial jobless claims, obliterating the expectation of a minor improvement of 455,000 from the prior week's 460,000. Continuing claims continue rising, and are now at 4,537,000.

Those people who had previously fallen off insurance lists are now back to collecting subsidies from the government, as the ranks of those collecting basic unemployment insurance and Extended Benefits increased by 257,000 in the week ended July 17.