By Agence France-Presse U.S. jobless claims rose by 15,000 over the past week to 352,000, the U.S. government said Oct. 14 in a report suggesting a sluggish labor market. Claims for the week ending Oct. 9 were well above the figure of 340,000 expected by Wall Street analysts. A four-week average of new claims, which smoothes out weekly distortions, rose 4,000 to 353,000 last week. Meanwhile, the number of former workers collecting state unemployment checks fell by 11,000 to 2.85 million in the week ended Oct. 2. Last week, the Labor Department said the economy added 96,000 payroll jobs in September. Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2004
