- Weekly jobless claims totaled 1.877 million last week vs. the Dow Jones estimate of 1.775 million.
- Continuing claims rose sharply, hitting nearly 21.5 million in a sign that workers are being called back to work slowly.
Filings for unemployment insurance claims totaled 1.877 million last week in a sign both that the worst is over for the coronavirus-related jobs crisis but that the level of unemployment remains stubbornly high.
As states begin to reopen after being almost completely shut down for the better part of three months, so have signs grown for an economic crisis likely to drive the unemployment rate to about 20% for May.
GOP shifting on unemployment benefits as jobless numbers swell:
With the national unemployment rate projected to hit or exceed 20 percent, the highest number since the Great Depression, a growing number of GOP senators say the federal government should continue to augment weekly unemployment benefits in some form — though most want it lower than the $600 figure.
GOP senators fear that wave of protests, riots and other forms of social unrest that has rocked major cities around the country is linked to the bleak economic picture and that their majority is on the line.
