Still, the number of first-time applications has now declined for six weeks straight.
Powell cautioned that numerous bankruptcies among small businesses and extended unemployment for many people remain a serious risk.
That’s the equivalent of one in five Americans who had been employed in February.
ADP says its payroll data for April shows the worst job loss numbers ever.
It’s by far the worst string of layoffs on record.
It’s the sharpest fall since the deepest depths of the Great Recession.
The loans, to support American households, businesses and local governments, is part of the Main Street Lending Program authorized by the economic relief law.
The urgently needed pandemic response measure is the largest economic rescue measure in history.
The central bank’s all-out effort has now gone beyond even the extraordinary drive it made to rescue the economy from the 2008 financial crisis.
The central bank said the effects of the outbreak will weigh on economic activity in the near term and pose risks to the economic outlook.
