U.S. Unemployment Claims Total 6.6 Million Last Week

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits continued to surge at record levels, bringing the total number of applications to nearly 17 million since the coronavirus pandemic shut down swaths of the U.S. economy.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that another 6.6 million people submitted applications for unemployment benefits in the week ended April 4. That is on top of a revised 6.9 million in the prior week, a record, and 3.3 million the week before.

Another key measurement of joblessness showed a record 7.5 million Americans were receiving unemployment benefits at the end of March. Continuing claims, a figure that captures the number of people drawing on benefits, grew by 4.4 million in the week ended March 28 to 7.5 million, eclipsing a record set in 2009 at the end of the financial crisis. The number of continuing claims lags behind the application data and is expected to continue to grow as more people seek jobless benefits.

Jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, provide temporary financial assistance for workers who lose their jobs.

“We clearly are still processing individuals who are having a hard time getting claims through at the state level in addition to the large numbers of layoffs that corporate America is now doing,” said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist for RSM US LLP. “You should still expect to see staggeringly large numbers of individuals file for first-time claims.”

Each additional week of historically high jobless claims dims the prospects for a rapid economic recovery once the novel coronavirus is contained in the U.S. and businesses start reopening.