The number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits for more than a week reached 4.99 million for the week ended Feb. 7, the fourth straight record-setting level, the Associated Press reported.

Meanwhile, an Associated Press-GfK poll showed that nearly half of the 1,001 people surveyed worry about becoming unemployed and nearly two-thirds are at least somewhat worried about paying their bills.

According to a Labor Department report, the number of new applications for jobless benefits totaled 627,000 last week, the same as the previous week, but more people are receiving benefits for a longer period, inching the continuing claims level toward 5 million.

An additional 1.5 million people are receiving benefits under an extended unemployment compensation program approved by Congress last year, bringing the total number receiving jobless pay to 6.54 million.

The government issued a new economic forecast yesterday for 2009, which predicted that the unemployment rate will reach between 8.5 and 8.8 percent this year.

Meanwhile, the AP poll conducted Feb. 12-17 found that people are far more worried about losing their job and paying bills than they were last year.

Of those surveyed, 47 percent worry at least somewhat about losing a job, up from 28 percent in February 2008. Sixty-five percent are at least a bit worried about paying their bills, up from 46 percent last year. Sixty-nine percent are concerned that the value of their stocks and retirement investments will drop and 53 percent are not confident they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement, up from 34 percent in February 2005.