Another 3 million Americans file jobless claims, bringing 8-week total past 36 million

The number of Americans who have filed initial unemployment claims during the coronavirus crisis has now reached more than 36 million.

The Labor Department on Thursday said another 2.98 million Americans filed initial jobless claims last week, which brings the eight-week total to about 36.5 million. Thursday's number was worse than the 2.7 million economists were expecting, CNBC reports.

The 2.98 million claims represents a decline from the previous week's 3.17 million, but it's still significantly higher than the record for weekly unemployment filings prior to the coronavirus pandemic: 695,000 in October 1982. The peak for weekly jobless claims during the Great Recession was 665,000.

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The April jobs report released last week showed the unemployment rate soared to 14.7 percent, the worst since the Great Depression, with 20.5 million jobs lost. On Wednesday, economists from Goldman Sachs forecasted the unemployment rate will peak at 25 percent and take several years to return to its pre-coronavirus level. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell also revealed Wednesday a Fed survey shows that among Americans who were working in February, almost 40 percent in households making less than $40,000 a year lost a job in March.