INDIANAPOLIS – In the eight weeks since the COVID-19 pandemic began in Indiana, more than 650,000 Hoosiers filed for unemployment, though the numbers continue to decline each week.
In the week ending May 9, more than 30,000 Hoosiers filed for unemployment benefits, a drop of about 11,000 from the previous week.
But those numbers are still much greater than the 2,000-2,500 per week numbers Indiana had before the pandemic.
The number of claims peaked in late March with about 139,000.
Nationally, an additional 3 million Americans have filed for unemployment putting the 8-week total up to 36 million.
Through March, the U.S. economy had been working at nearly full employment, with an unemployment rate of 4.4%. However, last week's report indicated that the unemployment rate had risen to 14.7%.
