More than 212,000 Californians filed for unemployment benefits last week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, bringing the running total since shelter-in-place order started in mid-March to more than 4.6 million. That represents 26.9% of the total workforce of California that is eligible for the unemployment insurance program.
Applications for temporary unemployment assistance in California declined last week by 13% from the number of applications submitted the previous week. But it's still a 455% increase compared to the same week last year.
Nationwide, roughly 2.1 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, which brings the national tally to 41 million.
The U.S. unemployment rate was 14.7% in April, a level not seen since the Great Depression, and many economists expect it will be near 20% in May.
— Monica Lam (@monicazlam) and Lisa Pickoff-White (@pickoffwhite), with contributions from the Associated Press