The job market remains tight in most part of the country, there are thousands of openings which are not advertised in newspapers and other traditional sources of job hunting.

Pasadena, CA -- (SBWire) -- 02/01/2011 -- The initial jobless claims went up again for the week ending in January 22.

The figure stood at 454,000 after seasonal adjustments. This was up by 51,000 from the previous week. The latest figures are the highest level of claims since October end and show a sharp jump compared to figures in late December and early January.

The Labor Department, which gathers these figures, says that one of the reasons was the snowstorms in several states which hampered workers going to work. But most media outlets are not buying that argument. The Wall Street Journal even says that this kind of a claim is made when people just don’t know what really happened.

The weak labor market has meant that the unemployment rate has stayed at 9.4 percent. Now there are 3.78 million Americans receiving emergency unemployment benefits for the week ending January 8. The total number of Americans getting jobless benefits is 9.4 million.

Although the job market remains tight in most part of the country, there are thousands of openings which are not advertised in newspapers and other traditional sources of job hunting. Hound, a job search engine, has been able to locate 150,000 jobs solely through tracking employer websites.