New figures released Thursday show that 3.1 million Americans filed for government jobless benefits in the week ended May 2, bringing the total number of newly unemployed people since the pandemic began to more than 33 million.
The U.S. Department of Labor says 3,169,000 people filed for initial jobless claims, a decrease of 677,000 from the previous week’s level.
The figure was slightly lower than the 3.3. million new filers that economists had been expecting, but it brings the seven-week total to more than 33 million. That’s almost one quarter of the working-age population in the world’s largest economy.
More to come.
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