17/04/2020
Jobless Claims Top 22 Million
via The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
Harriet Torry - WASHINGTON.
More than 22 million workers have sought unemployment benefits during a month of coronavirus-related shutdowns, a record-shattering total that reflects a broad shock for the U.S. labor market.
Some 5.2 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week, the Labor Department said Thursday, adding to three prior weeks in which millions of people filed for jobless claims. Since midMarch, about 13% of the labor force has sought jobless assistance, far outpacing any prior four-week stretch on record.
Last week’s total decreased from figures that approached 7 million in the prior two weeks, suggesting the wave of workers filing for benefits has passed its peak.
“Claims are now falling, having peaked...two weeks ago,” said Ian Shepherdson, economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. “But the weekly level is still almost unfathomably high.” Google search data for “file for unemployment” suggest claims will fall again this week, he said.
Before the pandemic, the largest number of workers to ask for unemployment benefits in a four-week stretch was 2.7 million, or 2.4% of the labor force, in the fall of 1982.
