About 1.9 million U.S. workers filed claims for unemployment benefits during the week ending 29 May, a number that surprised many analysts who had expected a more positive number.
The number of new claims was almost three times as high as the largest number of claims filed in a single week during the Great Recession.
About 43 million Americans have claimed unemployment insurance benefits since the economic shutdown began in March.
Meanwhile, May’s official unemployment rate was 13.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, down from April’s 14.7-percent rate. The drop inspired President Trump to declare that the U.S. economy is “ready to take off like a rocket ship.”
TRENDPOST: While the job numbers boosted the markets on Friday, downplayed is the fact that the Labor Department’s written statement announcing the number included a footnote that there had been an error in the calculations, and the unemployment number actually is closer to 16.3 percent, not 13.3 percent.
Some workers who should have been counted as temporarily out of work were instead mistakenly counted as being “absent” from work “for other reasons.” The bureau said it is working to discover why this problem recurs and will fix it.
