Thursday 25th April 2024
The US is reeling under a pandemic-induced recession that has impeded all business activities and put millions of people out of work.
Unemployment continued to wreak havoc in the US last week. However, jobless claims hit the lowest since the country went into lockdown.
According to the US Labour Department, the number of Americans filing for unemployment insurance hit 3 million mark for a seventh straight week, taking the total to 33.5 million.
The total jobless claims reached 3.17 in the last week ended on May 2, which is slightly below the previous week’s 3.846 million count.
The seven-week total indicates that 1 in 5 American employees is now out of work.
California, Texas and Georgia reported the highest number of jobless claims last week.
The number of jobless claims increased in just six states last week, including Maine, New Jersey and Oklahoma, and declined in the remaining 44 states.
Even the situation of the Americans who are still employed is becoming worse as they are suffering from pay cuts and reduced working hours.
The US continues to be the epicenter of coronavirus outbreak with the highest number of infection cases and deaths in the world.
So far, the US has reported 1,292,879 COVID-19 positive cases and 76,942 death cases. New York is the worst-hit state with coronavirus cases more than any other country.
New York has confirmed 337,421 COVID-19 infection cases and 26,365 death cases.
