Updated at 5:19 p.m. ET
Nearly 3 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week 鈥� bringing the total to 36.5 million in the past eight weeks, the Labor Department .
The number of people filing claims has been steadily dropping for weeks, since hitting nearly 7 million during one week in March. Still, claims remain at historically high levels, suggesting that the coronavirus isn't done pummeling the U.S. economy.
"Claims are slowly, stubbornly falling back toward a 'normal' level, but it is taking a frustratingly long time," says economist Thomas Simons of Jefferies LLC. "The outright level of continuing claims remains extremely disturbing."
Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics said first-time filings "remain at levels consistent with a labor market in distress."
The unemployment rate last month 鈥� the highest level since the Great Depression. In February, before the coronavirus shutdowns took hold, unemployment was at a nearly 50-year low of 3.5%.
On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell painted .
"The scope and speed of this downturn are without modern precedent, significantly worse than any recession since World War II," he said. A Fed survey found that nearly 40% of workers in households making less than $40,000 a year had lost a job in March, Powell noted.
The economy shrank at a 4.8% pace in the first quarter of 2020, but analysts are forecasting a double-digit drop in coming months.
Powell's comments sent stock prices plunging around the world, but they recovered somewhat on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing 1.6% higher. Banks and energy stocks were among those gaining.
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