The Labor Department reported Thursday that 5.2 million people applied for unemployment benefits in the week ending April 11. In addition to the millions of people who have lost their jobs due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus, they are already 22 million Americans who asked for benefits from the impact of the pandemic in the last four weeks.
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“In the week ending April 11, the number for initial claims was 5,245,000, a decrease of 1,370,000 from the revised level of the previous week,” notes the report.
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<iframe class = "_ 3ndsl" height = "0" srcdoc = "
Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims
Initial claims were 5,245,000 for the week ending 4/11 (-1,370,000).
Insured unemployment was 11,976,000 for the week ending 4/4 (+4,530,000).https://t.co/ys7Eg5LKAW
– US Labor Department (@USDOL) April 16, 2020
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The report also notes that the previous week’s number, which had been 6,606,000, was “revised” and corrected to 6,615,000. “The moving average for (the last) 4 weeks was 5,508,500,” adds the Department of Labor.
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The unemployment rate is expected to increase further in the coming months, and the overall job loss is likely to be higher in April, according to various analyzes.
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The 22 million new unemployed in the past four weeks have skyrocketed unemployment and ended 10 uninterrupted years of job generation, a streak that began in the early Obama era, in the recovery from the 2008 Great Depression.
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Economic disaster
The pandemic is wreaking havoc on the global economy, and on that of the United States. This Thursday’s numbers are in addition to those released Wednesday by the Commerce Department, which recorded the largest monthly drop in retail sales since those statistics began compiling nearly 30 years ago.
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On the other hand, the Federal Reserve said that industrial production had registered its biggest decline since 1946 and the International Monetary Fund this week forecast a drop in the US economy of around 6% for this year.
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In this scenario with increasing unemployment figures, the President Donald trump and other conservative allied voices are pressing to open the economy how much sooner and begin to relax stay-at-home orders and restrictions on business.
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