7-Week Jobless Claims <br />Total Hits 33.5 Million The most recent totals were <br />released by the Labor Department on Thursday. In addition to the staggering <br />seven-week total of claims, <br />it revealed that first-time filings for <br />last week exceeded 3.17 million. Economists had expected <br />an increase of 3.05 million. Paul Ashworth, Capital Economics, via NBC News While bleak, last week's first-time filers <br />did decrease from the week before, <br />which saw a total of 3.846 million. It was also the lowest unemployment filings <br />since the coronavirus was declared a pandemic <br />by the World Health Organization on March 14. Some economists are hopeful <br />that first-time filer numbers will dip below<br />one million by the beginning of June.
