More than 6.6 million Americans filed for new jobless claims in the week that ended March 28, doubling the record amount seen the previous week, when the COVID-19 crisis was beginning to wallop the U.S. economy.
The 3.3 million Americans who had filed for jobless benefits the previous week was already a record, shattering the 675,000 who did so during one month in the financial crisis of 2009.
The figure more than doubled what economists had been expecting.
Experts say the record number is a sign the sudden shutdown of a vast swath of U.S. commerce may be just starting to wreak havoc on the economy.
A stunning 10 million workers now have sought unemployment benefits in just two weeks, exceeding the nearly nine million who lost jobs from 2008 to 2010 amid the Great Recession.
