ARKANSAS (KNWA/KFTA) — Initial unemployment claims in Arkansas were 34,635 for week ending April 11, a drop of more than 27,000 from the previous week, according to the Department of Labor.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be the cause for initial claims being at a high level, according to the Department of Labor.

Nationally, the seasonally adjusted initial claims was 5.2 million for the week ending April 11, a decrease of 1.37 million from the previous week, which was 6.6 million.

Some states were hit harder with initial unemployment claims because of a system backlog, but that does not appear to be the case in Arkansas.

For the week ending April 4, Georgia had the highest increase of initial claims at 256,000, the lowest increase was Minnesota, 1,165.

According to Johns Hopkins University coronavirus data there are 2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally and more than 138,000 deaths. There are nearly 640,000 cases in the U.S. and about 30,000 deaths, as of Thursday morning.