Another 2.4 million apply for unemployment as pandemic keeps businesses closed

May 21, 2020May 21, 2020 Kevin

glegorly/iStock(NEW YORK) — An additional 2,438,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits the week ending May 16, according to numbers released this morning by the U.S. Department of Labor.

The number represents a decrease of 249,000 from the previous week’s numbers, which were revised down by 294,000, from 2,981,000 to 2,687,000.

Some 38.6 million Americans have now applied for unemployment benefits in the nine weeks since the COVID-19 virus began impacting the economy, meaning about one in four people in the U.S. workforce have lost their jobs.

Millions of eligible Americans are still waiting to receive their government economic stimulus benefit, with some estimates declaring that about 60 percent of benefits have been paid out so far, with the possibility that some families won’t receive theirs for months to come.