Jobless claims totaled 3.8M last week, topping 30M since mid-March
by Jay Heflin
| April 30, 2020 08:30 AM
Jobless claims jumped 3.8 million last week, the Labor Department reported on Thursday, as employers keep shedding jobs in light of the coronavirus economic shutdown.
Economists had estimated that 3.5 million would file for unemployment benefits last week and that the unemployment rate for April will be 19%, a level not seen since the Great Depression.
Including the Labor Department's latest announcement on the number of unemployment claims, the nation has lost over 30 million jobs since mid-March.
The historically high number of unemployed has overwhelmed the state agencies responsible for doling out benefits to jobless workers. For example, in 2019 roughly 1.7 million people claimed unemployment benefits for the week that ended on April 11. This year's number is over 16 million, a nearly ten-fold increase.
"We are losing nearly 30,000 jobs every hour of every day," said Alfredo Ortiz, president and CEO of the Job Creators Network.
A study from the Economic Policy Institute shows that the jobless rate could be higher than the federal government’s total because people are having a hard time filing a claim and have given up on trying.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/jobless-claims-totaled-3-8-million-last-week-topping-30-million-since-mid-march
