INDIANAPOLIS — An additional 57,397 workers in Indiana filed for unemployment benefits last week, raising the total since the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses across the state to close to more than half a million, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
In Bartholomew County, 5,685 initial unemployment claims were filed from March 15 to April 11, according to the latest county-level figures available.
The latest statewide unemployment figures were the lowest since claims started skyrocketing the week ending March 21, but still remain historically high compared to pre-pandemic levels, said Fred Payne, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Commission. The state has made 1.3 million unemployment payments and fielded more than 1.1 million phone calls in April, Payne said.
“We continue to see our initial claims for unemployment insurance decline from our peak week back in March,” Payne said. “…This is still more than double the peak week prior to March of this year.”
Figures released from the federal government Thursday showed that 3.8 million laid-off workers applied for jobless benefits last week, raising the total to about 30.3 million over the past six weeks on record, The Associated Press reported.
The layoffs amount to 1 in 6 American workers and encompass more people than the entire population of Texas, or more people than live in the New York and Chicago metropolitan areas combined, according to wire reports.
Economists have forecast that the U.S. unemployment rate for April could go as high as 20% — a figure not seen since the Great Depression, when the rate peaked at 25%.
This week, the government estimated that the economy shrank at a 4.8% annual rate in the first three months of the year, the sharpest quarterly drop since the 2008 financial crisis. But that barely captures the enormity of the downturn, because the lockdowns were not imposed until late March.
The current quarter is expected to be much worse, with a staggering 40% drop projected.
The virus has killed more than 220,000 people worldwide, including 61,000 in the U.S., according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Confirmed infections globally topped 3.2 million, including 1 million in the U.S., but the true numbers are believed to be much higher because of limited testing, differences in counting the dead and concealment by some governments.
With signs that the outbreak has plateaued in places around the U.S., many governors have taken tentative steps to begin reopening their economies. But surveys show that a large majority of Americans remain wary of returning to shopping, traveling and other normal economic activity.
