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War fears, high energy prices, and a stock market back in the doldrums continued to drag down the economy in the last week of March as new applications for unemployment insurance shot up to their highest level since April 13, 2002 according to today's US Labor Department report. Even after seasonal adjustments were made, the number of new applicants for unemployment benefits last week was up 38,000 from the week before to 445,000---continuing a seven week trend of new applications above the 400,000 mark that indicates an exceptionally weak job market. With even the more stable four-week moving average of new applications rising to 426,250 last week and entering its fifth week above 400,000, economists are predicting that the unemployment rate may have risen as high as six percent in March.