The numbers just keep on growing. Millions of Americans are still lining up on labor offices to process their jobless claims as many US states have started to emerge from lockdowns and reopen for business. 

According to Bloomberg, US market observers predict that an additional 2.1 million Americans have applied for jobless insurance in the week ending May 23. At the high spectrum, the figures would match the number of people who filed claims the week prior, but it fell from the record 6.9 million who sought for aid in late March.

Still, if the latest data matches that forecast, it will mean around 41 million Americans have applied for jobless claims in the span of 10 weeks.

The ongoing global health crisis' negative effect on the American labor sector will be given a serious look when the US Department of Labor reports its weekly preliminary unemployment claims data early Thursday. In the prior week, 2.437 million initial unemployment benefits were processed, pushing the nine-week total to 38 million.

Since reaching a high in the week ending March 28, the weekly initial jobless claims rate has been on a steady decline. Nevertheless, analysts have been paying close attention to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance system statistics, which cover those that were previously not qualified for jobless claims like self-employed and contracted employees.

Labor officials' weekly unemployment benefits report on Thursday, the most timely information on the US economy's current status, is also seen to show the number of people on unemployment claims reaching a new record peak middle of this month.

The data is being tightly monitored to evaluate how fast the economy will bounce back after businesses were closed down around middle of March to curb the spread of COVID-19 and nearly reduced the entire country's economy to shambles. While non-essential businesses are beginning to reopen, claims have remained at desperately high levels.

The declining rate of claims for each week indicates that the country is "well beyond the peak of inflows" into joblessness, Deutsche Bank economist Justin Weidner wrote in a Friday note, as reported by Carmen Reinicke of Business Insider.

However, initial jobless insurance remains in the millions, and ongoing claims - from those who are actively being granted benefits - continue to increase, which could mean that employment opportunities are now quite reduced, the note added. Goldman Sachs said the jobless turmoil in the US will likely weigh on the country's economy for some time.