INDIANAPOLIS — Hoosiers are still filing for unemployment at unprecedented numbers, even three months into the coronavirus pandemic.
New figures from the Department of Labor this week showed 23,604 initial claims were filed in Indiana for the week ending June 6, a slight increase from the prior week which saw just under 23,000 claims filed.
Since March, more than 750,000 Hoosiers have filed for unemployment.
According to numbers from the Department of Workforce Development, Hoosiers filed 190,983 unemployment claims in 2019. That means in the past 12 weeks there have been nearly four times as many unemployment claims filed as the entire year of 201`9.
READ | 1.8 million Americans filed for unemployment last week
Indiana isn't alone; unemployment claims across the country remain at a record high. Last week, more than 1.5 million Americans filed for unemployment, bringing the 3-month total in the United States to more than 43 million unemployment claims since March.
Although the numbers are still unprecedented, Thursday's report marked the tenth straight week of declining unemployment numbers, as every state has begun the process of lifting coronavirus-related lockdowns. However, unemployment claims remain historically high.
Prior to the pandemic, the record high for weekly unemployment claims came in 2006, when 665,000 people filed for unemployment. The Department of Labor has been tracking the statistics since 1967.
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