WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Millions more Americans likely filed for unemployment benefits last week as backlogs continue to be cleared and disruptions from the novel coronavirus unleash a second wave of layoffs, pointing to another month of staggering job losses in May.
FILE PHOTO: People who lost their jobs wait in line to file for unemployment following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at an Arkansas Workforce Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas, U.S. April 6, 2020. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo
The Labor Department’s weekly jobless claims report on Thursday, the most timely data on the economy’s health, could also offer some early clues on how quickly businesses rehire workers as they reopen and of the success of the government’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
“None of these states had systems set up to process the unprecedented amount of claims in one fell swoop, so there are backlogs,” said Steve Blitz, chief U.S. economist at TS Lombard in New York. “We continue to read of firms cutting their workforce and these are firms that were not immediately impacted by the mandated contraction from COVID-19.”
A broad shutdown of the country in mid-March to contain the spread of COVID-19 has r