Nearly 3M Americans filed jobless claims last week

36M have filed initial unemployment claims during the last eight weeks.

Published May 14, 2020 by Sydney Lake

More than 2.98 million people in the United States filed initial claims for unemployment last week, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics, marking a total of more than 36 million Americans who have filed jobless claims during the last eight weeks in the wake of the economic devastation brought on by the COVID-19pandemic.

Last week’s U.S. claims were down by 195,000. In the week ending April 25, 23 states reported that 3.4 million people are claiming federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, which provides temporary benefits for people who are not eligible for regular or traditional unemployment insurance.

Thirteen states reported 79,538 individuals claiming Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, which provides up to an additional 13 weeks of regular or traditional unemployment insurance benefits to those who have exhausted their eligibility.

The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 15.7% for the week that ended May 2, a 0.3% increase from the previous week.

The states with the highest insured unemployment rates for the week ending on April 25 were California, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Georgia, Vermont, New York, Connecticut and Washington.

States with the largest increases in initial claims for the week that ended on May 2 were Oklahoma, Maryland, New Jersey, Maine and Puerto Rico, while the largest decreases were in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Washington and Pennsylvania.

This story will be updated with Virginia-specific statistics, when available.

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