US Unemployment Claims Last Week at 3.17 Million... 33.5 Million Unemployed Over 7 Weeks

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The 'unemployment tsunami' in the United States caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) has continued for seven consecutive weeks.

The U.S. Department of Labor announced on the 7th (local time) that the number of new unemployment insurance claims last week (April 26 to May 2) reached 3,169,000.

An increase in new unemployment insurance claims means that jobs have decreased.

U.S. media outlets estimated that about 33.5 million people lost their jobs over the past seven weeks due to the COVID-19 situation based on this data.

New unemployment insurance claims in the U.S. surged starting from the third week of March (3.3 million claims) due to the COVID-19 crisis.

In the fourth week of the same month, claims rose to 6.87 million, followed by 6.61 million (March 29 to April 4), 5.24 million (April 5 to 11), 4.44 million (April 12 to 18), and 3.84 million (April 19 to 25).

Although the number of claims has decreased for five consecutive weeks, the increase remains historically high.

The weekly new unemployment insurance claims, which have recorded millions of claims for seven consecutive weeks, reached the highest level since the U.S. Department of Labor began compiling this data in 1967.

Before the COVID-19 crisis, the highest record was 695,000 claims in October 1982 during the second oil shock. After the financial crisis, the number rose to 650,000 claims in 2009.

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