Nearly 3.4 million Californians have filed for unemployment claims during the statewide lockdowns to combat the coronavirus, including more than 530,000 last week, according to a new report released Thursday, fresh evidence of the economic infection spawned by the coronavirus.
One bright spot in the dark economic landscape: The job losses in California clearly peaked in late March when 1.06 million people in the state filed for unemployment during the week that ended on March 28.
For the week that ended on April 18, about 533,600 California residents filed initial claims for unemployment, the Labor Department reported. That was down from the 655,500 who filed for unemployment during the week of April 11.
Over the five weeks of business lockdowns imposed by state and local officials in California, 3.35 million California workers have filed initial claims for unemployment, U.S. Labor Department statistics show.
