Americans File 6.6M New Unemployment Claims As Pandemic Drives Recession

U.S. unemployment claims continued to rise in the first week of April as more than 95% of Americans honor shelter-in-place orders and business activity grounds to a halt to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Americans made about 6,606,000 new jobless claims in the week ended April 4, according to Labor Department statistics released Thursday.

The prior week's number was revised higher to 6.87 million new claims. 

Continuing jobless claims rose from 3,029,000 to about 7,455,000, a figure slightly more encouraging than the 8-million average forecasted by Investing.com. 

These figures lifted the four-week average of jobless claims from 2,666,750 to 4,265,500.

The rates reflect a growing number of furloughs and permanent layoffs as businesses tighten their budgets to stay afloat in a period with little or no revenue. 

Benzinga is covering every angle of how the coronavirus affects the financial world. For daily updates, sign up for our coronavirus newsletter.

The Big Picture

Last month, the U.S. economy shed 701,000 jobs — the highest count since the Great Recession — and some economists forecast up to 20 million more losses in April.

“These dismal numbers suggest another record-breaking April jobs report,” Beth Ann Bovino, chief U.S economist at S&P Global Ratings in New York, told Reuters. “America is now in recession and as it appears to deepen, the question is how long it will it take before the U.S. recovers.”

Other Metrics

The March core producer price index outperformed forecasts to rise marginally month over month and remain steady year over year. Meanwhile, the non-core PPI rose 0.2 basis points month-over-month and year-over-year.