US unemployment claims set new high with 6.6 million residents filing

In this file photo taken on March 15, 2020, the 110 Freeeway is seen in downtown Los Angeles, California. Another 6.65 million US workers filed for unemployment benefits last week, the most ever recorded, as the coronavirus forces businesses to shut down nationwide, the Labor Department reported on April 2, 2020. Apu Gomes / AFP

WASHINGTON, DC (Eagle News) — The US Department of Labor reported Thursday that initial claims for unemployment insurance hit an all-time high of 6,648,000 for the week ending March 28, 2020. This marks an increase of about three million in just one week.

These numbers were released as the United States topped the list of reported COVID-19 cases, overtaking Italy and Spain who have the second and third most number of cases respectively. The U.S. also surpassed China, where the COVID-19 outbreak originated, in the number of coronavirus related deaths.

While the U.S. federal government has not implemented a nationwide stay-at-home order, many local and state governments have already ordered non-essential businesses to close and for people to stay at home or work from home in an effort to try to curb the spread of the virus.

As businesses closed their doors, many were sent home without work or pay and without the certainty that they would still have a job after the pandemic is over.

The number of unemployment claims were the most in California which reported 878,727 for the week ending March 28, an increase of 692,394 from the previous week.

Pennsylvania also had a large number of residents filing for unemployment with 405,880, up 28,429 from the previous week.

New York, the epicenter of the COVID-19 cases in the U.S. recorded 366,403 unemployment claims filed, up 286,404 from the previous week.

(Eagle News Service)