1.9 Million More Americans Filed for Jobless Claims Last Week

Another 1.9 million Americans filed unemployment claims last week, the lowest figure since the coronavirus started spreading widely in the U.S. in March, according to data released Thursday from the Department of Labor.

It's the ninth straight decline since weekly unemployment claims hit a peak of 6.9 million in March, but the total is nonetheless staggering when put into historical context. It is nearly three times the pre-coronavirus record of about 700,000 set in 1982. Overall, almost 43 million people have filed jobless claims in the last 11 weeks.

The number of people receiving unemployment benefits rose slightly to 21.5 million during the week ending May 23, a sign that more people are seeking unemployment for the first time than are going back to work or stopping benefits for another reason.

"In many ways, the claims numbers provide the closest thing to real-time insight into the status of the badly damaged job market. No matter how you crunch the variety of statistics, the job market story is devastating and heartbreaking unlike anything we've seen in our lifetimes," said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate.

The unemployment rate for May, due out Friday, is expected to be close to 20% -- a level not seen in the U.S. since the Great Depression.

The Congressional Budget Office on Monday released projections showing that the U.S. may

not fully recover from the pandemic until 2030.

There are a few hopeful signs, however, that the worst of the economic damage may be over. Private payrolls declined by 2.76 million people in May, according to an ADP report released Wednesday. Many analysts expected that figure to be closer to 8 or 9 million.

Mortgage applications are also rising, and there is evidence that Americans are beginning to travel again because lockdown restrictions have been lifted: Hotel bookings are up, as are the number of people flying through airports. Demand for oil and petroleum has also risen in recent weeks.