By Robert Hughes
Initial claims for unemployment insurance totaled 2.98 million for the week ending May 9, marking the eighth consecutive week of massive numbers of layoffs (see chart). However, claims have slowed for the sixth straight week after registering 6.87 million for the week ending March 28.
The current 8-week total of 36.47 million initial claims is more than four times the total 8.7 million job losses that occurred over 25 months versus during the Great Recession (see chart). The current total is also more than double the 15.4 million peak number of unemployed