Weekly Jobless Claims up 4.427 Million for Week Ending April 18th

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 4.427 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, April 18^th.  Last week’s total is actually better than the previous 3-weeks. However, the 5-week total since the COVID-19 outbreak is now above 26 million, continuing the worst string of U.S. job losses on record. Nearly 1 in 6 workers have lost their jobs since mid-March. The past 5-weeks job losses have wiped out all of the job gains since the Great Recession.