The unemployment rate rose to 4.4% in March as employers shed 701,000 jobs, the government reported Friday, ending a streak of 113 consecutive months of job gains as the coronavirus outbreak shut down many businesses.
The true jobless rate for March is much higher, because the cutoff for gathering data didn’t include nearly 10 million job losses in the final two weeks of the month.
The rate for February was 3.5%.
It was the first time since 2010 that payrolls declined.
State unemployment agencies are being besieged by people filing for benefits; a record 6.6 million claims were filed during the week ending March 28 alone.
Unemployment benefits are increased by $600 per week above the regular payments issued by states, under the $2.2 trillion federal rescue package that President Trump signed into law last week. Benefits will last for 39 weeks, up from the normal 26 weeks.
Under the law, part-time workers and the self-employed qualify for benefits for the first time.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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