Another 4.4 million Americans file for unemployment benefits

Transcript

For the fifth week in a row, millions of American workers applied for unemployment benefits, seeking financial relief as businesses remain closed during the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the US Department of Labor, last week first-time claims for unemployment benefits totaled 4.4 million.

The last five weeks have marked the most sudden surge in jobless claims since the Department of Labor started tracking the data in 1967.

And not all of those claims will result in benefits being paid.

Some will be rejected because workers did not meet all of eligibility requirements.

Weekly claims numbers have come down over the past three weeks with the last week in March reaching a peak of 6.9 million.

But just a couple of months ago, weekly claims were in the low 200,000s, showing the devastating effects of the pandemic on the job market.

Meanwhile states continue to struggle to process the overwhelming volume of unemployment claims.

And early studies have shown lower income workers are particularly affected by job losses and minorities, especially black and Hispanic families, are expected to take the hardest hit of the economic cost of the crisis.

Posted – 4.23.20