US Jobless claims climbs over 30 million! US Jobless claims climbs over 30 million as new first-time filings hit 3.84 million last week due to the ongoing Coronavirus. The Labor Department believes that the worst appears to be in the past.
Jobless claims came in at the lowest level since March 21st, but brings the rolling six-week total to 30.3 million as part of the worst employment crisis in US history. Claims hit a record 6.87 million for the week of March 28th but have declined each week since.
The incredible surge of unemployment numbers comes amidst the efforts to contain the coronavirus spread, with states shutting down businesses that are deemed non-essential. Some states and municipalities have begun bringing their economies back, while key US infrastructure and businesses remain on lockdown.
The Economic Policy Institute earlier this week estimated that the current claims undercount actual unemployment numbers by close to 12 million individuals who are eligible for benefits but are not getting them due to the inability to file or other roadblocks, such as antiquated systems that cannot handle the unprecedented number of filers.
Washington saw the biggest gains for the week, with a rise of 62,282, a 75% increase from a week ago. California and Pennsylvania saw declines of more than 200,000 and 63,000 respectively.
Gross domestic product contracted 4.8% in the first quarter, but this number is expected to look much worse when the final revisions are in – only then will we begin to see the damage caused to the economy by the Coronavirus.
Economists believe that Q1 numbers will end up sharply lower and predict a second-quarter decline worse than anything the US has ever seen.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday that the unemployment rate is likely to rise above 10% from the March level of 4.4% which counted a period before the lockdown of most businesses in the United States.
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