WASHINGTON (AP) – Roughly 2.1 million people applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week, a sign that companies are still slashing jobs in the face of a deep recession even as more businesses reopen and rehire some laid-off employees.
About 41 million people have now applied for aid since the virus outbreak intensified in March, though not all of them are still unemployed.
The Labor Department’s report includes a count of all the people now receiving unemployment aid: 21 million. That is a rough measure of the number of unemployed Americans.
The national jobless rate was 14.7% in April, the highest since the Great Depression.
