First-time unemployment claims in Massachusetts continued to fall last week, but still represent sit at double the highest weekly total of the Great Recession.

The week ending May 9 saw 44,467 Bay Staters file first-time unemployment claims, the federal Labor Department said Thursday morning, down from the prior week’s 55,884 but still double the previous record of 22,028 who filed in the week ending Dec. 27, 2008.

The figures push the total number of first-time jobless claims filed in Massachusetts since the start of the coronavirus crisis past 1 million when the roughly 185,000 claims from the self-employed and independent contractors filed through May 2 under a new, separate system are added, although the state is expected to release updated figures for that system later in the day. The total number of first-time jobless claims filed is equivalent to nearly 27 percent of the state’s March workforce.

Nearly 3 million laid-off workers applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week as the viral outbreak led more companies to slash jobs even though most states have begun to let some businesses reopen under certain restrictions.

Roughly 36 million people have now filed for jobless aid in the two months since the coronavirus first forced millions of businesses to close their doors and shrink their workforces, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Nation-wide, the number of first-time applications has now declined for six straight weeks, suggesting that a dwindling number of companies are reducing their payrolls.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.