The number of people applying for new unemployment-insurance benefits in New York state in the week ending June 8, increased by 1,341, or 6.6 percent, to 21,676. The jump was led by layoffs in the finance and insurance, health care and social assistance, and transportation industries, according to a U.S. Labor Department news release issued yesterday.

After posting a year-to-date low of 18,627 initial jobless claims filed in the week ending May 4, New York’s weekly claims have increased for five straight weeks, with the latest week’s rise the biggest.

The number of New Yorkers continuing to receive unemployment benefits also rose in the week ending June 8 — increasing by 1.4 percent to 210,699 from the previous week’s year-to-date low of 207,806. Until the latest week, continuing claims in New York had steadily dropped all year from a high of more than 300,000 set in the first week of 2013.

The state data is not seasonally adjusted.

The U.S. Labor Department yesterday also reported that nationwide the number of people applying for new unemployment benefits increased by 18,000 to 354,000 for the week ending June 15, compared to the revised figure of 336,000 for the week before. Analysts had been expecting about 340,000 claims.

The four-week moving average for national initial jobless claims increased by 2,500 to 348,250 in the latest week. The U.S. data is seasonally adjusted.

The Labor Department will release state data for new unemployment-benefit filings for the week ending June 15 next week.

Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com