The Labor Department released its statistics for for last weeks unemployment claims yesterday, and it was not good. About 5,245,000 people filed for unemployment in the week ending on April 11th, marking the fourth week in a row that several million workers filed. In the last four weeks, slightly more than 22 million workers have applied for unemployment. That's about 13.5% of this country's civilian workforce. This insures that the unemployment rate for April will be in double-digits.
Here is the official announcement from the Labor Department:
In the week ending April 11, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 5,245,000, a decrease of 1,370,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 9,000 from 6,606,000 to 6,615,000. The 4-week moving average was 5,508,500, an increase of 1,240,750 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 2,250 from 4,265,500 to 4,267,750.
