Even as an increasing number of states began reopening their economies across the country, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to wreak havoc on employment in the U.S. last week.
An additional 2.438 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending May 16. Economists were expecting 2.4 million initial jobless claims during the week. The prior week’s figure was revised lower to 2.69 million from the previously reported 2.98 million. Over the past nine weeks, more than 38 million Americans have filed unemployment insurance claims.
This story from Heidi Chung originally appeared in Yahoo Finance.
“With a ninth straight week of new weekly jobless claims being counted in the millions, although at a lower level than before, one might be tempted to focus on the continuing decline. But at 2.4 million new claims last week, the seismic impact should not be dismissed because earlier shock waves were larger,” Bankrate Senior Economic Analyst Mark Hamrick said in an email Thursday. “This number of new claims alone is about equal to the population of the city of Houston, Texas.”
