Breaking: Three Million Workers File for Unemployment in Past Week, Bringing Crisis Total to 36 Million

Close to three million people filed jobless claims in the past week, bringing the total number of unemployed Americans to 36 million.

Some 21.8 percent of the American workforce is now unemployed, a result of mass business closures imposed to mitigate the spread of coronavirus. While the closures initially hit retailers, restaurants, and the hospitality industry, the shock has spread to other areas of the economy including health care and other professional services.

“The scope and speed of this downturn are without modern precedent, significantly worse than any recession since World War II,” Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said on Tuesday. “Among people who were working in February, almost 40 percent of those in households making less than $40,000 a year had lost a job in March. This reversal of economic fortune has caused a level of pain that is hard to capture in words, as lives are upended amid great uncertainty about the future.”

Three Million Workers File for Unemployment in Past Week, Bringing Crisis Total to 36 Million Some 21.8 percent of the U.S. workforce is now unemployed, due to mass business closures imposed to mitigate the ... READ MORE ADVERTISEMENT Follow Us & Share 19 West 44th Street, Suite 1701, New York, NY, 10036, USA Your Preferences | Unsubscribe | Privacy View this e-mail in your browser.