Unemployment Claims Rise Again, As Do Mortgage Delinquency Rates

The nasty consequences of moron vector Donald "I Alone Can Fix It" Trump's bungling, on-going non- response to the coronavirus pandemic continue:

Even as an increasing number of states began reopening their economies across the country, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to wreak havoc on employment in the U.S. last week.

An additional 2.438 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending May 16. Economists were expecting 2.4 million initial jobless claims during the week. The prior week’s figure was revised lower to 2.69 million from the previously reported 2.98 million. Over the past nine weeks, more than 38 million Americans have filed unemployment insurance claims.

“With a ninth straight week of new weekly jobless claims being counted in the millions, although at a lower level than before, one might be tempted to focus on the continuing decline.  But at 2.4 million new claims last week, the seismic impact should not be dismissed because earlier shock waves were larger,” Bankrate Senior Economic Analyst Mark Hamrick said in an email Thursday. “This number of new claims alone is about equal to the population of the city of Houston, Texas.”  (our emphasis)

Then there's another predictable consequence:

Delinquencies among borrowers for past-due mortgages are soaring, a sign that Americans are struggling to pay their bills due to a wave of layoffs or lost income from the coronavirus pandemic.

Mortgage delinquencies surged by 1.6 million in April, the largest single-month jump in history, according to a report from Black Knight, a mortgage technology and data provider. The data includes both homeowners past due on mortgage payments who aren’t in forbearance, along with those in forbearance plans and who didn’t make a mortgage payment in April.

At 6.45%, the national delinquency rate nearly doubled from 3.06% in March, the largest single-month increase ever recorded, and nearly three times the prior record for a single month during the height of the financial crisis in late 2008, Black Knight said.  (our emphasis)

He "fixed it" alright.