The Department of Labor reported 1.3 million people applied for first time unemployment claims in the week from July 5th through July 11th, marking the 17th straight week claims exceeded one million people.
The week’s claims bring to 52 million the number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits since the coronavirus pandemic took hold across the United States in mid-March.
The United States had never passed the one million weekly claims threshold for unemployment claims in history. The 52 million workers equates to approximately one-third of the entire available American work force.