Jobless claims continue rising to unprecedented levels. The Labor Department reports, “In the week ending April 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 4,427,000, a decrease of 810,000 from the previous week’s revised level.” This brings the total over the last five weeks to more than 26 million.
CNBC says, “The rapid nature of the job losses is unprecedented, wiping out more than a decade’s worth of job gains in five weeks.”
Analysts believe these high rates will continue until the economy rebounds. And while the official April jobs report doesn’t come out until May 8th, the Associated Press says we can already draw some conclusions:
About one in six American workers have now lost their jobs since mid-March, by far the worst string of layoffs on record. Economists have forecast that the unemployment rate for April could go as high as 20%.
We are now getting more data about what industries and states are being impacted the most as well. For the week ending April 11th, the most jobless claims were filed in Colorado and New York. The industries hit the hardest are health care, arts, entertainment, and recreation, retail trade, and construction.
