WASHINGTON, D.C. — Another 3.8 million Americans have filed first-time unemployment claims in the week ending April 25, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The newest figure shows that since the sudden shutdown in the second half of March due to the outbreak of COVID-19, about 30 million people have filed for unemployment. This is the fourth consecutive week, though, that the weekly filings have decreased from the prior report. During the week ending April 18, 4.4 million claims were handled, which was down from 5.2 million during the week ending April 11. The Department of Labor reports the four-week moving average is 5 million, down from 5.8 million the previous four weeks.
On Wednesday, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) reported that the gross domestic product (GDP) in the United States shrank by 4.8 percent in the first quarter of 2020, which is the largest quarterly decline since the fourth quarter of 2008 when it contracted by 8.4 percent.
As of this writing, there were 61,005 deaths and nearly 1.1 million cases of COVID-19 in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).