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Learning online: tool against unemployment 2:01
New York (CNN Business) - No end in sight for coronavirus-related job losses.
Another 3.2 million Americans first applied for unemployment benefits last week, after taking seasonal adjustments into account, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
Without those adjustments, which economists use to account for seasonal fluctuations in hiring, the gross number was 2.8 million.
That brings the total number of seasonally adjusted initial claims filed since mid-March to 33.5 million. Initial applications are considered an indicator of layoffs or licenses, and that level represents approximately 21% of the March workforce.
Women would be the most affected by the economic crisis 2:25These numbers are staggeringly high; weekly claims for unemployment benefits hovered around 200,000 in recent years before this crisis.
But last week also marked the fifth consecutive week that the number of initial requests fell. It peaked at 6.9 million in the last week of March.
Economists say the downward trend is a good sign that things are not getting worse. But still, millions of new claims each week do not help the brutal overall picture of the job market during this pandemic.
Continuing claims for unemployment benefits, representing workers who applied for a second week of benefits or more, rose to 22.6 million.
The double Latin American crisis against the covid-19 1:12Not all applications result in paid benefits. This is due in part to filing errors and because not everyone who files is eligible for unemployment benefits.
LOOK: Unemployment in the United States has not been as severe since the 1930s
In response to the crisis, the government expanded the definition of who is covered by benefits to include contractors, freelancers, and others. The Department of Labor said that as of last week, all 50 states were paying those fringe benefits, but the agency has yet to release detailed breakdowns of how many applications have come through that program in each state.
coronavirus
