Unemployment Claims Better, but Still Bad

Just under 3.2 million filed for unemployment benefits the week ended May 2, according to the weekly report by the U.S. Department of Labor.

It’s an improvement from the prior week by about 677,000, but the insured unemployment rate was last tallied at 15.5 percent, up 3.1 percent from the previous week’s unrevised rate.

It puts the total number of people who have filed for unemployment insurance benefits at about 33 million.

Kansas had 18,281 filings the week ended May 2, down from 24,483 the prior week. Missouri was at 49,402, down from 55,299.

Read the full DOL report here.