4.4 million Americans sought jobless benefits last week, as economic pain continued

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

More than 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, according to the Labor Department, a signal that the tidal wave of job losses continues to grow.

The new total comes on top of 22 million Americans who had sought benefits in previous weeks, overwhelming state processing systems. There is no precedent for the velocity of job losses since March. Economists estimate the national unemployment rate sits somewhere between 15 and 20 percent, much higher than during the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009. The unemployment rate at the peak of the Great Depression was around 25 percent.

Pollack said many businesses quickly “cut to the bone” when they realized how the pandemic would gut sales. Now, many of the new layoffs stem from businesses news organizations and tech companies that weren’t directly affected by people staying home, but are suffering the consequences of vanishing ad revenue and paid subscriptions. “We see declines across every major industry and state, although the declines hit industries at different times,” Pollak said.

Meanwhile, consumer spending, the engine behind the longest economic expansion in U.S. history, has evaporated. If they’re still operating, offices are working with skeleton staffs and staring down months of dismal revenue. Funding for small businesses in the federal government’s stimulus package quickly dried up in the face of overwhelming demand, pushing the Senate to expand funding by $310 billion on Tuesday. The bill directed an additional $60 billion to a separate small-business emergency grant and loan program. The House is slated to vote on the measure Thursday afternoon.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/23/economy-coronavirus-unemployment/

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Full headline: 4.4 million Americans sought jobless benefits last week, as economic pain continued across the United States

See this for the source data - https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf (PDF)

to mahatmakanejeeves - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142477404#post1

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. From the source:

https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf

TRANSMISSION OF MATERIALS IN THIS RELEASE IS EMBARGOED UNTIL 8:30 A.M. (Eastern) Thursday, April 23, 2020

COVID-19 Impact
The COVID-19 virus continues to impact the number of initial claims and insured unemployment.

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending April 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 4,427,000, a decrease of 810,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 8,000 from 5,245,000 to 5,237,000. The 4-week moving average was 5,786,500, an increase of 280,000 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised down by 2,000 from 5,508,500 to 5,506,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 11.0 percent for the week ending April 11, an increase of 2.8 percentage points from the previous week's unrevised rate. This marks the highest level of the seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate in the history of the seasonally adjusted series. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending April 11 was 15,976,000, an increase of 4,064,000 from the previous week's revised level. This marks the highest level of seasonally adjusted insured unemployment in the history of the seasonally adjusted series. The previous week's level was revised down by 64,000 from 11,976,000 to 11,912,000. The 4-week moving average was 9,598,250, an increase of 3,548,000 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised down by 16,000 from 6,066,250 to 6,050,250.

{snip}

And good morning. This is in line with predictions. I heard on the radio that a figure of between 3 and 5 million was expected. Pretty broad range.

The .pdf goes on for several pages. It is full of data for each state and commonwealth.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Good morning and thank you!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. I was worried. "Gosh, maybe she overslept." NT

[BumRushDaShow]

4. ...

[underpants]

5. 26 million people out of work

Amazing

[Bengus81]

6. Add 6% to the unemployment numbers when released on May 1st

That's what Trump always said to do with Obama "fake news" unemployment numbers as they dropped and dropped over an eight year period.