The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the unemployment rate in the D.C. metro region in April tripled from March to 9.9%.
Nearly 1.9 million people applied for U.S. unemployment benefits across the nation last week, the ninth straight decline since applications spiked in mid-March, a sign that the gradual reopening of businesses has slowed the loss of jobs.
Seasonally adjusted weekly unemployment claims for the entire U.S. since the year 2000:
The statistics came one day ahead of the Labor Department’s Friday report on the May unemployment rate nationwide.
The April unemployment rate in the District itself was 11.1% on a not seasonally adjusted level in April, up from 5.9% in March.
The D.C. area’s civilian labor force shrank by more than 162,900 between March and April, but it has fared better than many other big cities.
The unemployment rate in April for Detroit jumped to 25.9%. It reached 20.3% in Los Angeles, 17.6% in Chicago and 15.1% in New York.
Baltimore’s unemployment rate rose from 3.5% in March to 10.4% in April.
The bureau reports unemployment rates rose in every one of the 389 metropolitan areas it tracks. Twelve areas had unemployment rates of at least 25%.
Among cities with a population of one million or more, Las Vegas had the highest unemployment rate, jumping to 33.5% in April.
Minneapolis had the lowest unemployment rate of 9.2%, almost triple that city’s unemployment rate in March.
The not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate nationally in April was 14.4%.
Localized State by State and National Unemployment Insurance Claims:
Since mid-March, 42.7 million people have applied for unemployment benefits in the U.S.
Not all of them are still unemployed, though. Some have since been rehired. And some laid-off people, it turns out, filed duplicate applications for benefits as they struggled with unresponsive state unemployment systems.
Thursday’s report wasn’t affected by the protests over the killing of George Floyd, which in recent days forced some major retailers and small businesses to close, because it covers claims filed only through May 30.
But some economists warn that applications for unemployment aid could rise in next week’s report, reflecting business closures amid the protests and scattered vandalism.
A separate report from the Labor Department Thursday showed a total of 67,077 initial unemployment claims were filed in D.C., Maryland and Virginia during the week ending May 30, down from 78,368 the previous week.
The number of people who sought jobless aid last week was also down in 47 states, while the number rose in just California, Florida and Mississippi.
The total number of people receiving aid fell in 37 states and in D.C. and increased in 13 states.
Applications for jobless benefits are falling in states that had reopened their businesses early, such as Georgia and Texas, and are also declining in those that are still early in the reopening process, such as New York and Massachusetts.
