Nearly 17 million Americans seek jobless aid as COVID-19 slams economy

A total of 462,135 COVID-19 cases were reported in the United States as of 9 p.m. EST on Thursday (0100 GMT on Friday) with a death toll of 16,513, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Newly released data showed that 6.6 million Americans filed initial jobless claims last week, bringing the three-week total to a staggering 16.8 million and underscoring the mounting economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Coronavirus – Chiefs of WHO, UN hit back at Trump’s threat
• Death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 90,000 worldwide

In the week ending April 4, the number of people filing for U.S. unemployment benefits slightly decreased by 261,000 to 6,606,000, after setting a second straight record in previous week, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Thursday.

“The very large spikes in weekly jobless claims, which were over 6 million for two consecutive months, suggests a much broader set of job closures in the short run,” Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University in Indiana, told Xinhua via email.

“The very rapid adoption of shelter-in-place orders by U.S. governors is clearly causing a significant reduction in employment across the states implementing it,” Hicks said.

As COVID-19 continues to sweep across the country, over 40 states and the District of Columbia have ordered residents to stay at home unless necessary. Deborah Birx, coronavirus response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, has recently discouraged Americans from visiting the grocery store and pharmacy.

Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, noted that prior cumulative three-week peak is 2 million in late 1982. “Never seen anything like this and policy response must be commensurate,” he said on Twitter.

Source: Xinhua – WASHINGTON