The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits last week shot to a record high for a second week in a row — topping 6 million — as more jurisdictions enforced stay-at-home measures to curb the coronavirus pandemic, which economists say has pushed the economy into recession.
Initial claims for unemployment benefits rose to 6.65 million in the latest week from an unrevised 3.3 million the previous week, the U.S.
Labor Department said on Thursday. [ Sign up for our Health IQ newsletter for the latest coronavirus updates ] “We expected to see 4.5 million claims.
This number is doubling last week’s,” said Priya Misra, head of global rates strategy at TD Securities in New York. — More to come