93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
The number of unemployment claims in Missouri dropped last week, but was still several times above average.
The labor department reports 54,710 claims in the week ending Apr. 25. There were 59,271 of those claims the previous weeks. Missouri reports 453,189 claims since the week ending Mar. 21, more than double the claims for all of 2019.
More unemployment data from The Associated Press:
More than 3.8 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week as the U.S. economy slid further into a crisis that is becoming the most devastating since the 1930s. Roughly 30.3 million people have now filed for jobless aid in the six weeks since the coronavirus outbreak began forcing millions of employers to close their doors and slash their workforces. That is more people than live in the New York and Chicago metropolitan areas combined, and it’s by far the worst string of layoffs on record. It adds up to more than one in six American workers.
