7-Week Jobless Claims
Total Hits 33.5 Million The most recent totals were
released by the Labor Department on Thursday. In addition to the staggering
seven-week total of claims,
it revealed that first-time filings for
last week exceeded 3.17 million. Economists had expected
an increase of 3.05 million. Paul Ashworth, Capital Economics, via NBC News While bleak, last week's first-time filers
did decrease from the week before,
which saw a total of 3.846 million. It was also the lowest unemployment filings
since the coronavirus was declared a pandemic
by the World Health Organization on March 14. Some economists are hopeful
that first-time filer numbers will dip below
one million by the beginning of June.