U.S. Unemployment Claims Reach A Record 6.6 Million

Millions of Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, as businesses continue to lay off and furlough workers in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

According to CNN, a record high of 6.6 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits for the week of March 28th. This number is nearly double what economists had projected, according to a poll by Refinitiv.⠀⠀⠀

“The US economy went from full speed to full stop, and millions of workers were not wearing seat belts,” Josh Lipsky, director of programs and policy at the Atlantic Council think tank, said, according to the NY Post.

In the previous week, 3.3 million Americans had filed for their first week of unemployment benefits, which, at the time, was the largest number ever.

The latest numbers, which are quite grim, came ahead of the federal government’s monthly jobs report, which will be released on Friday. However, experts say the closely watched report will actually understate the full impact of the unemployment crisis because it only covers the first part of March before the worst of the virus-related job losses began to take effect.

“Similar to last week’s unemployment claims numbers, [Wednesday’s] report reflects the sacrifices American workers are making for their families, neighbors, and country in order to ‘slow the spread,’” labor secretary Eugene Scalia said of the new numbers, as he pointed out the fact that the recently signed stimulus bill aims to strengthen unemployment benefits.

Nearly 10 million Americans have become jobless in the past two weeks as the coronavirus pandemic continues to sweep the nation, new data shows.