(James Limbach @ ConsumerAffairs) The government reports first time claims for state jobless benefits shot up by 15,000 in the week ending September 14 to a seasonally adjusted initial total of 309,000. But analysts say it's hard to gauge how accurate that number really is.

According to economists at Briefing.com, computer glitches in California and Nevada prevented many claimants from filing for benefits. Those problems created a backlog of filings, which resulted in a temporarily lower initial claims level. The Department of Labor says it expects the backlog to be processed over the next week or two before the claims level returns to normal.

When the mess is cleaned up, Briefing says it expect the initial claims level to settle back to its previous 330,000 trend.

The 4-week moving average, which is less volatile than the weekly number and considered a more accurate gauge of the labor market, totaled 314,750 -- down 7,000 from the previous week.