The count represents a decrease of 249,000 claims from the previous week’s revised level of 2.13 million. It is also the lowest since mid-March, when the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Still, the latest weekly numbers are significantly above the pre-pandemic record of 695,000 from October 1982, as they have been every week since mid-March, according to The Washington Post.
Overall, Americans have filed more than 40 million initial unemployment claims during the pandemic.
Here is a week-by-week tally of initial unemployment claims:
Week ended May 30: 1.9 million
Week ended May 23: 2.1 million
Week ended May 16: 2.5 million
Week of May 9: 2.7 million
Week of May 2: 3.2 million
Week ended April 25: 3.8 million
Week ended April 18: 4.4 million
Week ended April 11: 5.2 million
Week ended April 4: 6.6 million
Week ended March 28: 6.9 million
Week ended March 21: 3.3 million
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