Almost 3m Americans sought jobless benefits for the first time last week, bringing the total number of unemployment benefit applications to 36.6m since the coronavirus pandemic hit the world’s largest economy.
The data offered evidence of continuing deterioration in the US labour market in the face of the cascading shutdowns that have hit many businesses across the country — and dashed hopes that the pace of lay-offs would rapidly subside after the initial shock.
Although it was the slowest increase since mid-March, the number of initial jobless claims of 2.98m in the week ended May 9, was higher than expectations of 2.5m applications, according to a survey of economists by Refinitiv.