U.S. weekly unemployment keeps rising

Another 3.84 million Americans filed for unemployment last week. But the pace of weekly jobless claims has slowed since its record high of 6.86 million in mid-March. As state orders caused businesses to shutter and decrease staff to slow the spread of the coronavirus, millions have rushed to file for benefits.

How are states handling the crisis? Some state unemployment offices were not prepared for the surge of applications and have massive backlogs. Virginia has only processed half of the claims it has received, NBC News reported. California Labor Secretary Julie Su told NBC the state is paying about $1 billion a day in unemployment benefits.

Dig deeper: Read Katie Gaultney’s report about the confusing standards on what qualifies as an “essential business” under COVID-19 shutdown orders.