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US Unemployment Jumps to 33.5M, as Pandemic Wreaks Havoc on World's Largest
Economy

Ken Bredemeier

   The pace of claims for unemployment compensation slowed marginally in
   the U.S. last week, but another 3.2 million still filed for the
   benefits as the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the
   world's largest economy.

   In all, 33.5 million U.S. workers have now filed for jobless
   compensation since the pandemic shut huge sectors of American commerce
   starting in mid-March, according to the Labor Department, including
   factories, shops, restaurants, white-collar offices and sports leagues.

   The total amounts to about one of every five U.S. workers.

   The workers filing for the benefits normally are paid slightly less
   than half their normal salaries. But these payments are currently being
   augmented during the pandemic with $600-a-week supplements from the
   federal government for the next four months.

   The peak of the unemployment benefit claims may have come in late March
   with 6.9 million workers filing for the jobless compensation.

   The weekly pace of claims has diminished each week since then, but the
   millions of claims have still been unparalleled over decades of U.S.
   economic history, reaching back to the Great Depression in the 1930s.
   The number of claims has far exceeded those made during the Great
   Recession in 2008.

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