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3.2 Million More US Workers File for Jobless Benefits

Ken Bredemeier

   WASHINGTON - 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.

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