More Than 2 Million Unemployment Claims Were Filed Last Week
More than 2 million more people filed unemployment claims last week, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Labor, bringing the total number of jobless Americans to more than 42 million since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending May 23 were in Maine (11,941), Oklahoma (10,274), Michigan (7,859), Kentucky (6,417), and Oregon (4,913), while the largest decreases were in Washington (90,683), Florida (49,993), California (41,169), New York (34,875), and Illinois (14,517).
Florida currently has the eighth-highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country, at 60,175.