Thread by @bencasselman, Another 3 million Americans filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week, [...]

Ben Casselman

bencasselman

Another 3 million Americans filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week, the 8th straight week of million-plus claims. As a reminder, before this period, the most claims EVER filed in a week was 695,000 in 1982.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/business/unemployment-claims-numbers-stock-market-coronavirus.html?type=styln-live-updates&label=economy&index=1">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/1...

On a not-seasonally-adjusted basis (probably a better measure given the unprecedented nature of this crisis), claims last week were a still-catastrophic 2.6 million.

Note that these figures do NOT include filings under the "Pandemic Unemployment Assistance" program, which expanded eligibility to people who don& #39;t qualify for normal benefits.
There were 842k PUA filings last week, down from 1 million the week before.

Note that we don& #39;t know when these layoffs occurred -- backlogs have made it hard for people to file, and might deter others from filing right away. So we shouldn& #39;t assume all 3 million claims are from new layoffs (although clearly many are).

Over the past eight weeks, a total of 33 million people (not seasonally adjusted) have filed for unemployment. That& #39;s one out of every five U.S. workers.

And remember that unemployment claims understate the damage. In our latest @SurveyMonkey poll, only 45% of people who said they& #39;d applied for benefits reported being successful. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/business/economy/coronavirus-unemployment-claims.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/1...

‘Rolling Shock’ as Job Losses Mount Even With Reopenings

Nearly three million new unemployment claims brought the two-month total to more than 36 million, even with some still frustrated in seeking benefits.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/business/economy/coronavirus-unemployment-claims.html

One data note: The next monthly jobs report will cover data through this week (i.e. next week& #39;s claims report).

So far, there have been 11.6 million unemployment claims filed since the data was collected for the last jobs report. https://twitter.com/nick_bunker/status/1260915053890600960">https://twitter.com/nick_bunk...

https://twitter.com/nick_bunker/status/1260915053890600960

(One caution on theses cumulative figures: As businesses start to reopen in some states, we& #39;d expect to see at least some hiring. So don& #39;t assume all of the people who have filed claims are still unemployed, although of course many of them are.)

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