More Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week as California continued to work through a backlog.

Jobless claims decreased by 12,000 to 350,000 in the week ended Oct. 19 from a revised 362,000 in the prior period, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington.

The median forecast of 48 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a decrease to 340,000. Applications in California remained elevated and analysts weren’t able to determine how many non- federal workers filed due to the government shutdown, a Labor Department spokesman said.

Firings may gradually diminish as a backlog of claims processing in California work their way out of the data and the end to the closure of government prompts companies to call back staff. A slower-than-expected pace of hiring in September may reflect companies’ hesitance to ramp up payrolls as lawmakers in Washington feuded over the budget and now prepare for the next round of negotiations.

It’s going to be a couple more weeks before we get a clean reading on initial claims, said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

(Bloomberg)