U.S. Unemployment Claims Top 20 Million In Four Weeks

Nearly 5 million more people filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week, and now, a total of 22 million people are jobless, and a once-booming economy is now on the brink of a crisis.

According to NBC News, the data is still limited, as state unemployment offices continue to struggle to process the overwhelming number of people rushing to file their claims.

“The job losses are historic,” economist Julia Coronado told NBC. “It means that we are going to be in for a double-digit unemployment rate.”

The weekly jobless claims have taken on vital importance as economists and policymakers struggle to get their arms around the size of this new crisis.

“The labor market is obviously very, very important, and has a high correlation with what is going on in the economy,” Jay Bryson, the acting chief economist at Wells Fargo, said. “It is showing us what I think we all know, that the economy is falling off a cliff at an unprecedented rate.”

Economists hint at the importance of the date May 8th, as a day that Trump is dreading. May 8th is when the federal government is scheduled to release unemployment data for the month of April, according to reports, and economists agree that it is likely to be extremely grim, with job losses totaling at least 20 million.

“I think we still have a way to go before we will see some tapering of these claims,” Joel Prakken, chief U.S. economist at IHS Markit said. States are overwhelmed by first-time filers, and weekly claims reflect that. Because of bottlenecks, Thursday’s number will probably include claims filed weeks ago, which were finally processed this past week.

Policymakers are hopeful the labor market will rebound as quickly as it has fallen, and employers who have laid-off workers will decide to rehire them once social distancing restrictions subside.