By Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – Unemployment claims once again spiked in Illinois.
According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Labor, 178,133 workers filed for unemployment benefits for the week ending March 28, a 56 percent increase over last week’s record 114,114 filings.
The number of filings continues to climb as employers feel the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
The federal government has reinforced state unemployment funds in an effort to cover the sudden expense of the massive spike in jobless claims, something Gov. J.B. Pritzker admitted Tuesday that the state would need to pay its share.
Nationally, more than 6.6 million Americans filed unemployment claims.
“This marks the highest level of seasonally adjusted initial claims in the history of the seasonally adjusted series,” the U.S. Department of Labor said in a news release.
Non-essential businesses in at least 32 states have been forced to shut down as state and city governments have issued stay-at-home orders to try to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Earlier this week, ADP’s national employment report for the entire month of March showed 90,000 small business job losses versus gains in businesses with more than fifty employees, what Mark Grant with the National Federation of Independent Businesses’ Illinois chapter says is likely mirroring the shutdown of non-essential companies across the country.
“Be it nationally or in Illinois, it was the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
Hotels, entertainment venues, casinos, hair salons, barbershops and many other businesses are closed in the majority of the country, though some states have a looser definition of what is essential.
Grant said the layoffs with the commitment from workers that they’ll return to their jobs is crucial to a quick economic recovery.
California saw the most number of claims filed for the week ending March 28 with 878,727. That’s up 692,394 over the prior week, when 186,333 unemployment claims were filed.
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