3 Million More Americans File for Unemployment

3 Million More Americans File for Unemployment

The newest statistics released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that weekly unemployment claims increased by 2,981,000 between May 2nd and May 9th. The previous week’s claims were further  revised upwards to 3,176,000.

While claims have declined from record highs, over the last four weeks claims have averaged 3,616,500. Unemployment claims since March 2020 have now risen over 36 million in total.

These unemployment figures are approaching rates unseen in the United States since the Great Depression. Millions of Americans who are struggling to make ends meet are put into an even more precarious situation.

Rising unemployment is characteristic of the crisis and depression stages inherent to the capitalist economic system. Capitalist economics operate anarchically, as commodities are produced solely to generate profit. Such a political and economic arrangement is incapable of  preventing cyclical crises from arising and resolving healthily. Only a planned economic system run in the interests of the working class could prevent such chaos from occurring in the first place.

https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/