More than 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits for the week ended April 18, according to the Labor Department today. From March 15 to April 18 26.5 million people have filed initial claims for unemployment. Economists estimate that the national unemployment rate is now somewhere between 15% and 20%. That’s higher than the peak unemployment rate in the Great Recession of 2008-2009, and is approaching the peak rate during the Great Depression of 25% or so.
Less than half of working age Americans will be earning a wage next month,  James Knightley, ING Chief International Economist told the Washington Post. (Before the coronavirus recession, the labor participation rate had vacillated near 63%.) In some states such as Hawaii, Kentucky, Michigan, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania about one in four workers has filed an unemployment claim in the past few weeks.
