As many as 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment claims last week, bringing to 26 million the total number laid off as a result of lockdowns imposed on US businesses over the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Labor Department said on Thursday in its weekly jobless claims report
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd April, 2020) As many as 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment claims last week, bringing to 26 million the total number laid off as a result of lockdowns imposed on US businesses over the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Labor Department said on Thursday in its weekly jobless claims report.
"In the week ending April 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 4,427,000," said the report, which came after filings for 22,322,000 lost jobs in four previous weeks.
US Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia said in a statement accompanying the Labor Department data that the "unemployment report shows continued, elevated unemployment claims caused by the coronavirus pandemic."
While the latest weekly jobless claims showed a decline of 810,000 from the previous week, the five-week sum has surpassed all job gains in the United States since the 2008-2009 financial crisis, the report showed.
On a state level, Florida saw the biggest spike in job losses, with 324,718 new filings, nearly double the previous week. In contrast, New York, the epicenter of the US coronavirus outbreak, saw a plunge of nearly 190,000, cutting its claims from the previous week by half.
The United States is the country worst hit by the COVID-19, with more than 840,000 infections and nearly 47,000 deaths. Most of the country's 50 states remain on lockdown from the pandemic, although a few have said they would begin reopening some parts of their economies this weekend.
