Record 6.6 Million Americans File Weekly Jobless Claims As COVID-19 Impact On US Grows

A record 6.6 million Americans filed unemployment claims last week, doubling the previous week's all-time high, as the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic grew from the lockdown on US businesses, the Labor Department said in its weekly jobless claims report on Thursday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd April, 2020) A record 6.6 million Americans filed unemployment claims last week, doubling the previous week's all-time high, as the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic grew from the lockdown on US businesses, the Labor Department said in its weekly jobless claims report on Thursday.

"In the week ending March 28, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 6,648,000, an increase of 3,341,000 from the previous week's revised level," the report said. "This marks the highest level of seasonally adjusted initial claims in the history of the seasonally adjusted series."

The department added 24,000 claims to the previous week's tally to bring the final number for that week ended March 21 to 3,307,000.

"The COVID-19 virus continues to impact the number of initial claims. Nearly every state providing comments cited the COVID-19 virus," the report said. "States continued to identify increases related to the services industries broadly, again led by accommodation and food services."

Aside from lodging and food-and-beverage services, other industries where employment was impacted by the pandemic include health care and social assistance, manufacturing, retail, wholesale trade and construction, the report added.

The COVID-19 has infected more than 216,000 people in the United States and killed more than 5,100.