Jobless Claims Soar to 6.6 Million
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From the Center
Record 6.6 Million Americans Sought Unemployment Benefits Last Week
A record 6.6 million workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, marking a sharp downturn in the labor market caused by the new coronavirus.
The large number of claims comes after 3.3 million sought benefits two weeks ago as the U.S. shut down parts of the economy in an effort to contain the virus. Jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, provide temporary financial assistance for workers who lose their jobs.
More Americans are expected to have filed for unemployment benefits in the past two weeks than in the prior six...
From the Left
A record 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment last week
A record 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, the latest brutal reminder of the toll the coronavirus pandemic is taking on the U.S. economy.
Analysts had predicted a jobless claims total of anywhere between 3 million and 6 million, after huge numbers of businesses across the country were forced to close down due to the need for social distancing, leaving millions of Americans without work.
Thursday's figure eclipses even the record-shattering 3.28 million jobless claims from the week before, the first real marker of the number of...
From the Right
New jobless claims soar to record 6.6 million as pandemic ripples through the economy
Workers claiming new unemployment benefits swelled to a record 6.6 million last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday, as the coronavirus pandemic forced businesses across the country to shut down.
The historic jobless number, about double what forecasters expected, exceeds the previous record, by far, set last week of 3.2 million requesting unemployment benefits.
The past two weeks have been record-breakers in terms of job losses as the virus has infected over 215,000 Americans, according to Johns Hopkins University. The previous record high for weekly jobless claims was 695,000 in...
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