29,400 file for unemployment
Last week was 5,200; this week isn’t even over
More than 29,400 new unemployment claims were made in Wisconsin so far this week as the coronavirus pandemic shut down restaurants, bars and other businesses.
That number of claims were made between Sunday and Wednesday, according to preliminary claim filing totals from the U.S. Department of Labor. These are preliminary numbers and subject to change.
In the prior week, around 5,200 new unemployment claims were filed. The number of claims this week is nearly six times higher — and the week isn’t even over yet.
The pace of claims is accelerating, the data shows. Around 14,800 of those were made Wednesday alone. On Tuesday, more than 8,400 claims were filed. More than 4,000 were filed Monday and around 1,500 Sunday.
The pandemic is expected to increase layoffs with decreased demands for goods and services as people are encouraged to stay at home. More than 150 cases of coronavirus have now been confirmed in Wisconsin.
The most recent Depart of Labor numbers only show a slight increase. New jobless claims in Wisconsin increased during the week ending March
14, according to reports by the Department of Labor Thursday. Around 5,200 people filed claims that week in Wisconsin. That’s 150 more than in the prior week.
This report only captures the beginning of the response to the coronavirus pandemic and stock market volatility. On the last day of this report — March 14 — there were 27 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the state and Gov. Tony Evers had not yet closed bars, restaurants and any gatherings of more than 10 people.
Across the country, around 250,900 people filed new unemployment claims in the week ending March 14. That was an increase of more than 50,500 from the week prior, according to the Department of Labor. It is the highest level for initial claims since Sept. 2, 2017, when it was 299,000.
The increase in initial claims was “clearly attributable to the impacts from the COVID-19 virus,” the Department of Labor said in its news release.
“A number of states specifically cited COVID-19 related layoffs, while many states reported increased layoffs in service-related industries broadly and in the accommodation and food services industries specifically, as well as in the transportation and warehousing industry, whether COVID-19 was identified directly or not,” the release said.
In states where the coronavirus pandemic spread sooner, new unemployment claims are increasing quickly. In Washington, new unemployment claims more than doubled from one week to the next. More than 14,800 new unemployment claims were filed in the week ending March 14, compared to around 6,600 in the prior week. In California, new claims rose nearly 15,000 to around 58,000.