According to the Department of Labor’s weekly report, 840,000 Americans filed for first time unemployment during the week ending October 3rd, maintaining an elevated number of claimants and signaling that the economy is still reeling from the coronavirus.
The previous week’s report was also revised up by 12,000 claimants to 849,000. This week’s number is four times the number of people who applied for unemployment during the same time last year.
During the week ending September 15th, 25.5 million Americans were receiving some type of unemployment benefit. During the same week in 2019, 1.4 million Americans were receiving unemployment benefits, 5.5% of the current number.