Filings for unemployment insurance claims in the United States totaled 1.877 million last week, in what experts say is a sign both that the worst is over for the coronavirus-related jobs crisis, but also that the level of unemployment remains stubbornly high.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 1.775 million new claims. The total nevertheless represented a decline from the previous week’s upwardly revised total of 2.126 million. Filings under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program totaled 623,073.
Continuing claims, which provide a clearer picture of how many Americans remain unemployed, totaled 21.5 million, a gain of 649,000 over the past week, also worse than Wall Street expected.
As American states slowly begin to reopen after being almost completely shut down for the better part of three months, so have signs grown for an economic crisis likely to drive the unemployment rate to about 20% for May.
The most recent data point was the private payrolls report Wednesday from ADP, which showed a decrease of 2.76 million in May. While that remains far higher than anything the U.S. economy saw in the pre-coronavirus era, it was well off Wall Street expectations of an 8.75-million-worker decline.
