US jobless claims hit 33m since start of coronavirus lockdown
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US jobless claims now stand at 33m since the American economy entered coronavirus lockdown, new figures released today reveal.
The Bureau of Labor statistics show another 3.2m US citizens registered jobless claims over the last week.
That is a drop from 3.8m the previous week but the number is still jaw-dropping.
It means so-called initial claims made for unemployment support since lockdown began have now hit over 33m.
And the US Labor Department added that 22.6m people have now filed what are called “continued claims” – showing they have been jobless for more than a week.
The figures come hot on the heels of data yesterday that US private payrolls fell a historic 20.2m in April. That leaves the US economy reeling from a record number of job losses.
However, US jobless claims have fallen for the fifth straight week after hitting 6.9m in the week ending 28 March.
“The pace of new claims for unemployment is slowing, but remains at levels unimaginable just a few months ago,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economics in Holland, Pennsylvania.
“Even with the economy slowly starting to reopen, the number of unemployed should continue to rise sharply as governments, as well as businesses that have tried but not succeeded at holding the line, are now laying off workers,” he said.
US jobless claims worse than Great Depression
The US Labour Department is scheduled to release a comprehensive employment report for April tomorrow. A Reuters forecast suggests non-farm payrolls are set to plunge by 22m for the month. That would crush the previous record, set during the financial crisis, of a drop of 800,000.
Richard Flynn, UK managing director at investment firm Charles Schwab, said it was “likely” US jobless claims have now pweaked,
But he said the numbers make plain that unemployment has never been worse, with the Great Depression of the 1930s the most similar comparison.
“The Fed has not only used its playbook from the global financial crisis to provide stimulus to the economy, but significantly added to it during the Covid-19 crisis,” he added. “Even if today’s jobless claims have hit an inflection point, investors could see the US central bank go even further.
“We’re often asked whether the Fed is reaching the limits of what it can do, but the answer is that there really is no defined limit.”