The Labor Department reported that 1.86 million new unemployment claims were filed last week, an improvement of 249,000 over the prior week. The pace of new claims has been steadily declining since a peak of 6.8 million on March 28th. Continued claims increased 649,000, to 21.5 million, after decreasing last week; many of the unemployed are relying on federal government benefits, to the tune of $71.5 billion in the first three weeks of May, 48% more than was paid out in April. Other workers are heading back to work, and Moody's Investors Service predicts a fairly rapid recovery in industries such as health care, construction and manufacturing, while others heavily hit will take longer, such as travel, entertainment and nonessential retail.
See "Job loss rate may be slowing as new unemployment claims slip below 2 million", Scott Horsley, NPR, June 5, 2020