Miguel Diaz, who works for the City of Hialeah, hands out unemployment applications to people in their vehicles in front of the John F. Kennedy Library in Hialeah, Florida, on April 08, 2020. (Getty Images)

A total of 36.5 million Americans have filed unemployment claims since mid-March following the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, according to a new report.

The US Department of Labor announced the latest figures on Sunday evening, saying another 3 million people in the United States filed initial unemployment claims last week on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Economists say this is relatively good news because it means things aren’t getting as worse in the United States as were initially estimated. It was the eighth week that the number for initial claims decreased.

The US Treasury secretary, however, has said that the unemployment rate reported by the government is likely to get worse amid lockdown measures put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Steven Mnuchin made the comments on Sunday after the US Labor Department announced last week that the unemployment rate had surged to nearly 18 percent in April, shattering the post-World War ll record of 10.8 percent in November 1982.

The Department also said it had received 33 million filings for first-time unemployment benefits by Americans over the past seven weeks, indicating more job losses to come.

The reported numbers are probably going to get worse before they get better, Mnuchin told the Fox News.

Mnuchin said the White House was considering taking more fiscal measures to ease the economic pain in the aftermath of the pandemic, and also pushing for a payroll tax cut.

The unemployment crisis has sparked protests against lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Protesters across the US called on governors to rethink the restrictions as sweeping stay-at-home orders in 42 states have shuttered businesses, disrupted lives and destroyed the economy.

SOURCE: PRESS TV