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More than 2.4 million people applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week in the latest wave of layoffs from the viral outbreak that triggered widespread business shutdowns two months ago and sent the economy into a deep recession. Roughly 38.6 million people have now filed for jobless aid since the coronavirus forced millions of businesses to close their doors and shrink their workforces, the Labor Department said Thursday. (Rugaber, 5/21)

Continuing claims -- the total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits -- increased to a record 25.1 million in the week ended May 9. That sent the insured unemployment rate, or the number of people currently receiving unemployment insurance as a share of the total eligible labor market, to 17.2% for that period. (Pickert, 5/21)

Now the (relatively) good news: First-time claims have declined for seven straight weeks. They peaked at 6.9 million in the final week of March. But joblessness remains a crisis in the United States. Wide swaths of the country's labor market will remain closed as the coronavirus makes returning to work impossible for many Americans. Economists expect many -- but not all -- jobs will return as the economy reopens. But experts remain concerned that some jobs will be permanently eliminated by this crisis. (Tappe, 5/21)

Economists said claims numbers were staying high also as states were now processing applications for gig workers and many others trying to access federal government benefits. These workers generally do not qualify for regular unemployment insurance, but to get federal aid for coronavirus-related job and income losses they must first file for state benefits and be denied. (Mutikani, 5/21)

Hundreds of thousands of self-employed and gig-economy workers are receiving unemployment benefits for the first time through a temporary coronavirus-related program, but those claims aren’t reflected in overall totals since the pandemic started more than two months ago. The Labor Department’s weekly jobless claims report, due out Thursday, is expected to show that millions of workers filed claims again last week. Initial weekly claims have been declining since a peak of nearly seven million at the end of March, but have remained historically high. (Chaney and King, 5/21)

President Trump and top Republican lawmakers are mounting fresh opposition to extending enhanced unemployment benefits to the millions of Americans who are still out of work, even as the administration released new jobless figures Thursday showing 2.4 million Americans sought benefits last week. The reluctance by the White House and top GOP leaders drew sharp rebukes from congressional Democrats, who argue the coronavirus outbreak threatens to further ravage the U.S. workforce unless the government authorizes additional aid. Their clash could intensify in the next six weeks, as policymakers stare down a July deadline while the country’s labor market is expected to only worsen. (Romm and Stein, 5/21)

As a producer of personal protective equipment, Carl Livesay was eager to rehire his 60 employees and get operations up and running at the Baltimore-based manufacturer Maryland Thermoform Corporation once its forgivable government loan came through. But with some workers earning more staying home because of the enhanced unemployment benefits provided by the CARES Act, the company has struggled to restore its headcount -- putting it at risk of violating the terms of its stimulus loan through the Paycheck Protection Program, which calls for employers to retain three-quarters of their payroll. "It's been very difficult to get some people to return to work," Livesay, the vice president of operations for Maryland Thermoform Corporation, told ABC News. "In some cases, depending on what their compensation was, they make more money with unemployment and the federal stipend of $600 a week." (Haslett, 5/21)

Pay bumps for essential workers at companies like Amazon, Kroger and Rite Aid are getting rolled back this month, while Target is extending higher wages through July 4. The pay increases are often dubbed “hero pay” or hazard pay — a recognition that the work of grocery store clerks and warehouse pickers has taken on new dimensions of danger in the pandemic. Workers are fighting to keep their bonuses in place, saying that the danger hasn’t gone away. But the labor market could complicate demands for higher pay. (McCarty Carino, 5/20)

Martha Escudero had been living with her two young daughters on the couches and in the spare rooms of friends and family in Los Angeles for about a year and a half. It had always been uncomfortable, but the coronavirus pandemic made it dangerous: it was impossible to social distance in a home full of people. So she took over an empty house, owned by the state of California. "I'm, like, supposedly successful according to American standards," said Escudero, who works as a home health aide. "I was born and raised here. I have a college degree, I speak English -- and I'm unable to pay rent. To me, that's ridiculous." (Reeve, 5/20)

Long before the coronavirus pandemic hit, American farmers were struggling. They lost important export markets because of the U.S.-China trade war and growing international competition. Then this health crisis emerged and disrupted an already volatile supply chain. That has agricultural economists predicting a rise in farm bankruptcies across the United States. (Uhler, 5/20)

An urgent call reached Ronald O’Hanley, State Street Corp.’s chief executive, as he sat in his office in downtown Boston. It was 8 a.m. on Monday, March 16. A senior deputy told him corporate treasurers and pension managers, panicked by the growing economic damage from the Covid-19 pandemic, were pulling billions of dollars from certain money-market funds. This was forcing the funds to try to sell some of the bonds they held. But there were almost no buyers. Everybody was suddenly desperate for cash. (Baer, 5/20)

A quandary is lurking at the heart of the efforts to revive the economy. In recent decades, a growing share of job growth and gross domestic product has come from the business of getting people together — from college sports and music festivals like Coachella to ax-throwing bars and ice cream museums. Yet given the infectious nature of the coronavirus, these very events will be among the very last to return. “Any place people want to gather is a place no one wants to be right now,” said Joe Pine, a co-author of “The Experience Economy.” (Gelles, 5/20)

Millions of people are behind on their credit-card and auto-loan payments, the latest sign of the coronavirus pandemic’s financial devastation. Lenders in April had nearly 15 million credit cards in “financial hardship” programs, such as deferral programs that let borrowers temporarily stop making payments, according to estimates by credit-reporting firm TransUnion. (Andriotis, 5/20)