As first-time unemployment claims declined nationally and in D.C. and Virginia last week, initial claims in Maryland spiked.
Nationally, another 3.169 million Americans filed first-time unemployment claims last week, a decrease of 677,000 from the previous week.
That brings the total number of first time unemployment claims to 33.5 million over the past seven weeks, wiping out all job gains in the years since the Great Recession ended.
The Labor Department reports the official April unemployment rate on Friday, May 8, but it said the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate for the week ending April 25 was an estimated 15.5%. The unemployment rate is expected to be the highest since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
The job losses are directly related to businesses closing during the coronavirus pandemic.
The unadjusted number of initial claims last week, which does not factor in seasonal influences, was 2.849 million.
The total number of first-time claims for D.C., Maryland and Virginia combined were 134,533 last week. The Labor Department does not break out weekly initial claims by metropolitan area.
Here are initial claims for the week ending May 2 in D.C., Maryland and Virginia, on an unadjusted basis:
District of Columbia:
Week Ending May 2: 8,133
Week Ending April 25: 8,707
Maryland:
Week Ending May 2: 65,262
Week Ending April 25: 37,925
Virginia:
Week Ending May 2: 61,138
Week Ending April 25: 72,488
See the initial jobless claims by state.
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