Over 26 Million Applied For Unemployment In Last 5 Weeks

The Labor Department has released its weekly statistics for unemployment claims. It shows that about 4,427,000 workers filed for unemployment in the week ending 4/18/20. That means about 26,453,000 workers have filed for unemployment in the last five weeks. That means about 16.24% of the civilian workforce (162,913,000) has been put out of a job in the last five weeks. And it is expected that millions more will be put out of work in the coming weeks.

Here is the official notice from the Labor Department:

In the week ending April 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 4,427,000, a decrease of 810,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 8,000 from 5,245,000 to 5,237,000. The 4-week moving average was 5,786,500, an increase of 280,000 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised down by 2,000 from 5,508,500 to 5,506,500.