Week Four of the U.S. Labor Market Collapse

by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street

These layoffs are gut-wrenching and gigantic. But six states reported “fewer layoffs” in some industries – as there are not that many people left to lay off?

It’s a previously unimaginable and gut-wrenching magnitude: Over the past four weeks, including today’s report, 22.03 million initial unemployment claims have been processed.

In the week ended April 11, 5.245 million people filed initial unemployment claims, seasonally adjusted, the Department of Labor reported this morning, about eight times the peaks during the prior unemployment crises in 1982 and 2009. This is in addition to the 6.61 million initial claims a week ago, 6.87 million claims two weeks ago, and 3.3 million claims three weeks ago:

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