New claims for unemployment benefits climbed to 281,000 last week as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered businesses and left people out of work, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the highest level since Sept. 2, 2017, when they totaled 299,000.
That latest number, for the week ended last Saturday, was an increase of 70,000 from the prior week. But the numbers are expected to jump even more this week as several states reported that their unemployment claims websites had crashed with so many people trying to file at the same time.
Oxford Economics said the report is “a small preview of what’s to come. … We expect the virus to cause significant job losses as the economy sinks into a deep recession.”