U.S. jobless claims soar to 3.28 million due to COVID-19 layoffs; gold prices rise

New York (Mar 26)  First-time U.S. jobless claims skyrocketed in the week to Saturday to a record seasonally adjusted 3,283,000, with a surge after layoffs due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the government said. Spot gold was last up by $21.90 to $1,634.80 an ounce.

The report is one of the first major ones to offer a glimpse of the economic impact of the lockdowns and self-quarantine efforts to combat the spread of the virus.

Consensus expectations of economists, which are compiled by financial-news organizations, called for a historic jump. As economists tried to guess just how much, consensus forecasts ranged from an increase of 1 million to as much as 2.5 million, a far cry from the normal weekly change of several thousand.

The government revised the prior week’s tally to 282,000 from the previously reported 281,000.

This was the second straight week the Labor Department issued a statement attributing a rise to layoffs that are a result of slowing business as the country tries to slow the COVID-19 outbreak. Consumers are avoiding flying and other travel, and governments in many state are ordering non-essential businesses closed to reduce the spread of the virus from person to person.

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