Nearly 3 million Americans filed for unemployment last week bringing the two month total to more than 36 million amid the public health pandemic.
New data from the Department of Labor released Thursday shows nearly 3 million Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week as the economic toll over the novel Wuhan coronavirus begins to reach into its third month.
Thursday’s new numbers show more than 36 million have now filed jobless claims since state and local lockdowns became implemented in mid-March in an effort to curb the spread of the virus leading to an array of other consequences in the process including financial devastation and an escalating mental health crisis.
While last week’s number of unemployment claims has dropped to the lowest in new filings since mid-March, the more than 2.9 million still far outpaces the previous record set for new claims in a single week in 1982 with 695,000. The April jobs report released Friday shows that within just two months the nation reached record levels of unemployment hitting 14.
