Filings for benefits by jobless Americans still above 2 million

Washington

THE number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits stayed above two million for a 10th straight week amid the deepest drop in GDP output since the 2007-09 Great Recession.

The Labor Department said new claims for state unemployment benefits totalled a seasonally adjusted 2.123 million for the week ended May 23, from a revised 2.446 million in the prior week. The job cuts came from US state and local governments whose budgets have been decimated fighting the Covid-19 pandemic and rounds of private-sector layoffs.