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Unemployment Claims Top 1 Million for 13th Consecutive Week
June 18, 2020
An additional 1.5 million Americans filed for unemployment last week, as the fallout from the coronavirus continues to ravage the job market. The number topped the 1.3 million that economists had expected, and is just 58,000 lower than the previous week’s claims.
Prior to the pandemic, the record for a single week was 695,000. The worst single week during the 2008 financial crisis was 665,000.
Despite all 50 states having at least partially reopened and the economy adding 2.5 million jobs in May, the number of new weekly claims remains persistently high.
Continuing claims edged slightly lower, falling 62,000 to 20.5 million.
