American jobless claims rise by another 2.1 million

Another 2.1 million more Americans filed for unemployment insurance last week, according to the Labor Department.

This raises the total number of US workers who have filed jobless claims to over 40 million over the past two-and-a-half months as COVID-19 brought the US economy to a screeching halt.

Though the amount of new filings have eased a bit after evening out at around 7 million in the last week of March, jobless claims have continued to be in the millions each subsequent week since then, according to ABC News.

"Although initial claims are declining, the pace may only be plateauing," Glassdoor senior economist Daniel Zhao said in a commentary Thursday morning.

"If UI claims remain in the millions for the next few weeks, it may signal that relaxed state-mandated restrictions alone aren’t enough to staunch the flow of unemployed Americans."

"The sustained level of elevated UI claims seen this month is a likely indicator that next week’s May jobs report will show a jump in the unemployment rate into the high teens or beyond," he added.

"The May jobs report is unlikely to show as stark a change as April’s historically grim report; however, it will show a labor market still deep in the grips of the pandemic."

The current unemployment rate of nearly 15 percent has reached its highest since the Great Depression, and many economists predict that it will only continue to rise in the coming weeks.

The unemployment rate was 3.5 percent in the US before the outbreak of the pandemic.

A few of the hardest hit industries include hospitality, food and drink services, and retail.