Coronavirus Pandemic: US Unemployment Claims Hit Record 3.28 Million Last Week, Report

The economic devastation of the coronavirus crisis continues to unfold internationally.

The US  unemployment claims last week have hit a historic 3.28 million, said the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday.

The recent figure amid coronavirus pandemic has shattered the previous record of weekly jobless claims from October 1982 of 695,000, in the US.

According to economists, the unemployment situation is expected to grow even worse in the weeks ahead.

The unemployment news from the US has threatened to erase this week’s stock market gains and comes after the Senate passed a massive $2 trillion stimulus bill late Wednesday aimed at stabilizing the U.S. economy.

As being reported by CNBC, The off-the-charts job-loss claims summarized Thursday for the week ended March 21, as entire industries come to halt, were more than twice analyst consensus estimates of 1.5 million.

A Goldman Sachs report last week had predicted 2.25 million unemployment claims, while Citigroup had pegged upwards of 4 million.

As per Fortune, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that initial jobless claims from two weeks ago had spiked 30%, to 281,000. Moody’s Analytics has projected 5 million-6 million job losses for the month of March 2020.