RPT-WRAPUP 1-US jobs data miserable, regional factories slump

(Repeats to additional subscribers)

* U.S. new weekly jobless claims at 16-year high

* Continuing claims highest since 1982

* Philly Fed: US Mid-Atlantic factory index at 18-year low

* Leading Economic Indicators index falls

By Burton Frierson

NEW YORK, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The number of American workers on the unemployment rolls surged to the highest in a quarter century and a regional manufacturing gauge slumped as U.S. economic misery intensified.

The reports on Thursday were the latest in a growing body of evidence that shows the United States has probably entered one of the worst downturns in decades, while economists expect the world's leading economies to be in recession for about a year. For details see [ID:nLK530846].

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits jumped last week to their highest level in 16 years, Labor Department data showed, suggesting next month's jobs data will add to the 1.2 million jobs already eliminated this year.

"No rest for the weary," said Carl Lantz, U.S. interest rate strategist at Credit Suisse in New York.

"It looks like we'll have another ugly payroll number in December."

Worse yet, the number of workers remaining on jobless benefits, or continuing claims, were the highest since December 1982, rising to 4.012 million in the week ended Nov. 8, the latest data available, from 3.903 million the prior week.

An index of factory conditions in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region fell to another 18-year low in November, a survey showed.

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank said its business activity index fell to minus 39.3 from minus 37.5 in October. Any reading below zero indicates contraction in the region's manufacturing sector.

A key measure of inflation in the survey, the prices paid index, fell to its lowest since the survey's launch in 1968.

This gives the Federal Reserve leeway to fight the economic downturn by keeping rates low but could also heighten concerns that the U.S. may enter a destructive deflationary spiral, especially after data on Wednesday showed consumer prices fell at a record pace in October.