The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits held above 2 million last week for a 10th straight week amid job cuts by U.S. state and local governments whose budgets have been decimated fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and more second-wave layoffs in the private sector.
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits held above 2 million last week for a 10th straight week amid job cuts by U. S. state and local governments whose budgets have been decimated fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and more second-wave layoffs in the private sector.
Signs the economy was spiraling deeper into recession were underscored by other data on Thursday showing business spending on equipment plummeting in April. The economy contracted in the first quarter at its steepest pace since the 2007-09 recession. Data on the housing market, manufacturing and consumer spending point to a collapse in gross domestic product in the second quarter at a pace last seen during the Great Depression.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits totaled a seasonally adjusted 2.123 million for the week ended May 23, from a revised 2.446 million in the prior week, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast initial claims falling to 2.1 million in the latest week from the previously reported 2.438 million.
Though claims have declined steadily since hitting a record 6.867 million in late March, they have not registered below 2 million since mid-March. The astonishingly high level of claims has persisted even as non-essential businesses are starting to reopen after shuttering in mid-March to control the spread of COVID-19, an indication it could take a while for the economy to dig out of the coronavirus-induced slump.
