JEFFERSON CITY — More than 50,000 Missouri workers filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week, marking the seventh straight week of high numbers since the coronavirus began shuttering businesses across the nation.
Meanwhile, nearly 74,500 workers in Illinois filed for unemployment benefits in the same period, a decline of about 6,700 from the previous week.
They joined the nearly 3.2 million laid-off workers across the U.S. who applied for unemployment benefits in the week ending May 2.
While the numbers remain high, the pace of new filings has slowed. Data Thursday by the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations shows 52,203 workers made initial claims last week, down from 54,710 the week before. The number of weekly unemployment claims peaked in late March at 104,230.
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The new data comes as Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has been promoting the end of his statewide stay-at-home order by visiting businesses in the southwest part of the state. The statewide order was lifted Monday and was replaced by a more lenient “reopening†order.
Parson’s stay-at-home order was less strict than other states and didn’t require essential businesses to close. It placed occupancy limits on some businesses and required them to enforce a distance of 6 feet between customers.
Along with four other Midwest governors, Parson also contributed to this week in which the Republican governors stated they had kept their respective states “open for business†during the pandemic.
“Here in the country’s heartland, decisions have been made based on sound medical and social science, positioning our states to thrive individually as our economies reopen,†the governors wrote.
Economists told the Post-Dispatch this week that the decision by area businesses to reopen this week won’t trigger an immediate resurgence in the economy.
Roughly 33.5 million U.S. workers have now filed for jobless aid in the past seven weeks . That’s the equivalent of one in five Americans who had been employed back in February.
The official figures for jobless claims may also be undercounting layoffs. Surveys by academic economists and think tanks suggest that as many as 12 million workers who were laid off by mid-April did not file for unemployment benefits by then, either because they couldn’t navigate their state’s overwhelmed systems or they felt too discouraged to try.
Missouri has also been dealing with a backlog of applicants, which has left some frustrated at the state’s slow response.
The Labor Department reports April unemployment figures on Friday. White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett on Tuesday said he expects the rate to “be north of 16%, maybe as high as 20%†— the worst since the Great Depression.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.