Weekly Unemployment Claims Hit 5.24 Million

An unemployment application is seen in a box as City of Hialeah employees hand them out to people in front of the John F. Kennedy Library on April 08, 2020 in Hialeah, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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The number of jobless claims hit 5.24 million in the week ending on April 11, according to the Labor Department’s report that was released on Thursday morning.

With this new number, the total number of job losses over the last month has reached nearly 22 million, indicating that virtually all jobs gained after the 2008 recession have been wiped out.

Economists have estimated that the job losses have pushed the unemployment rate to about 15%, rivaling that of the Great Depression.

The latest jobless numbers come a day after news that U.S. retail sales saw a record drop in March as stores across the country have been shuttered.

Unemployment has soared as the COVID-19 outbreak forces most businesses to remain closed to prevent the virus from spreading further. A record 6.8 million jobs were lost by early April amid the pandemic.

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  1. That makes 20 million new claims in four weeks. No sane person sees an end to any of this yet either.

  2. All this winning that tRump has brought us is gonna kill us

  3. That is almost 22M job losses in a month!

    Note that the St. Louis FED forecasted 47M job losses last March 30th…
    we are now almost half-way to the job loss forecast!

    And let us NOT forget that the job loss pain is being exacerbated by Cruello-The-Vain’s insistence to have his signature (not lawful) so then he wanted his name printed on the Cares Relief Check thus delaying it further for the most vulnerable Americans!

    Coronavirus Carnage

    Trump Carnage (due to 70 days of disinformation, denials, delays, dysfunction)

  4. The Great Recession was glacially slow for job losses compared to this depression. 8.6 million people lost their jobs over two years. TWO years! Now we are just one month into this crisis.

    The April unemployment rate is going to be brutal.

  5. It would probably be more, but it is impossible in some states to file due to the amount of people trying.

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