The Labor Department released its weekly figures on filings for initial unemployment benefits Thursday morning, showing that an additional 3.2 million Americans requested aid on top of the roughly 30 million people who have filed since the coronavirus lockdown began. Although the weekly figure is still historically high, it has dropped from 3.8 million claims filed the previous week. Thursday's claims number comes ahead of the monthly employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which will be released Friday morning. Economists expect that the jobless rate in April will set a record high, shattering the post-World War II record of 10.8 percent from November 1982.
