Jobless claims double last week's historic unemployment jump

The Department of Labor's April 2 report on initial claims saw a 100% increase from last week's unprecedented 3.3 million new claims.

Information from the agency showed, "In the week ending March 28, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 6,658,000, an increase of 3,341,000 from the previous week's revised level. This marks the highest level of seasonally adjusted initial claims in the history of the seasonally adjusted series."

The comparable week from a year ago saw a total of 183,775 claims. Prior to last week's 3.3 million claims, the previous record-holding week took place in October 1982, when 695,000 new claims were filed. The April 2 report doubled the week ending March 21 and is nearly 10 times the previous 1982 record.

In Texas, 275,597 new claims were filed with the Workforce Commission, up from 155,426, or 77.3%, for week ending March 21. Few states had more claims filed that week than Texas. There was California with 878,727 claims, Pennsylvania with 405,880, New York with 366,403 and Michigan with 311,086.