Another record-breaking spike in U.S. jobless claims hit Americans across the country, but varied in impact by state as each governor takes a different tact in slowing the spread of COVID-19. Claims for state unemployment benefits were most concentrated in Hawaii, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Rhode Island with claims of 73, 63, 62, 54 and 50 per 1,000 workers, respectively. The data is for jobless filings through the end of last week. Those were the states that saw the most intense surges in claims when controlling for differences in the size of each state's labor force. Washington state, Massachusetts, Ohio and Louisiana also saw some of the most concentrated bumps in unemployment filings, according to the unadjusted Labor Department data.

Looking at absolute unemployment unadjusted for state population, California came out highest with more than 878,000 workers filing for benefits, up 692,000 from the prior week's print of 186,000 claims. That's a more than 350% increase. Pennsylvania workers filing for state unemployment rose from 377,000 in the week ended March 21 to 405,000 in the week ended March 28, a surge of 28,000. Michigan saw initial claims rise to 311,000 from 128,000 the week prior. The Labor Department issued a special notice at the top of its release Thursday morning explaining the coronavirus's impact on the jobless claims data. "The COVID-19 virus continues to impact the number of initial claims. Nearly every state providing comments cited the COVID-19 virus," the government said.