New claims for unemployment benefits hit a 16-year high last week, according to figures from the government's labor department.

They show that applications rose to a seasonally adjusted 542,000 in the week ending November 15th, up from a revised figure of 515,000 the previous week.

This is the highest number of new jobless claims since July 1992 when the economy was recovering from the last recession.

Concerns have been voiced over the state of the labor market for some time now as rising unemployment puts extra pressures on those already struggling with debt.

Cary Leahey, an economist at Decision Economics in New York, told Reuters: "We're probably facing another payroll employment report showing November job losses in the vicinity of 200,000."

According to the Associated Press, companies including Citigroup, Union Pacific and Sun Microsystems have all announced layoffs recently.

The US unemployment rate currently stands at 6.5 per cent.

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