Layoffs continue two months after broad shutdowns started, dampening hopes for a swift recovery.
More than 4 million U. S. workers filed for jobless benefits last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. That brings the total number of people applying for aid to more than 43 million, on a seasonally adjusted basis, since the coronavirus pandemic spread across the nation.
Put another way, 1 in 4 U. S. workers has applied for jobless aid in the last 10 weeks.
“Unemployment claims made during the coronavirus crisis have already exceeded the 37 million claims made over the entire 18 months of the Great Recession,” Daniel Zhao, senior economist at Glassdoor, said in a note. “[T]he labor market remains in a deep hole it will have to climb out of.”
Some 2.4 million workers applied for regular unemployment insurance in the week ending May 16, marking a slight decrease from the week before. But nearly as many — 2.2 million — applied for aid under Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a new federal program for self-employed and gig workers.
The self-employed were not being counted in previous weekly jobless figures until last week.
