Jobless Claims = 4.427 Million

This morning’s jobless claims figure was 4.427 million. That’s about in line with expectations. Continuing claims rose to 15.98 million.

Combined with the prior four jobless claims reports, the number of Americans who’ve filed for unemployment over the last five weeks is 26.45 million. That number exceeds the 22.442 million jobs added to payrolls since November 2009 when the U.S. economy began to add jobs back after the recession.

Investors won’t receive the official look at the U.S. unemployment rate for the month of April until May 8. But the Labor Department’s latest nonfarm payrolls report for March showed droves of layoffs at restaurants and bars as some state governments force the closure of the majority of their businesses.

The March nonfarm report showed payrolls plunged by 701,000 last month, marking the first decline since 2010 and the worst fall since March 2009. The unemployment rate jumped nearly a full percentage point to 4.4% from 3.5%.

Stock futures are about flat for today’s open.

Posted by on April 23rd, 2020 at 8:31 am


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