Weekly jobless claims hit 6.6 million due to coronavirus outbreak, Labor Department says

Another 6.6 million people applied for unemployment benefits last week, the government reported on Thursday, as the economic shutdown due to the coronavirus continued to devastate the labor market.

Claims for the previous week were revised upward to 6.8 million. The three-week total for jobless claims now stands at 16.5 million.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department announced Thursday another $2.3 trillion in stimulus. They established a Main Street Business Lending Program and a Municipal Liquidity Facility to support the flow of credit to American workers, businesses, states,...