‘A Brutal Wipeout’: Shocking New Job Numbers Push Unemployment Claims to Over 30 Million

Cable news hosts, journalists, and politicians responded with shock and awe to the news Thursday that 30 million Americans had now claimed unemployment due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Initial jobless claims for last week coming at 3.84 million. The range was between 2 and 5 million. This now takes us pushing 30 million claims over a six week period, folks,” announced Cheryl Casone on Fox Business. “It’s stunning numbers, it really is.”

“These numbers obviously are ugly numbers, these are terrible numbers,” replied Fox host Maria Bartiromo. “But at the same time I’m wondering if we are seeing a little bit of a leveling out.”

On Twitter, economic journalists, politicians, and media commentators weighed in on the loss, describing the numbers as “brutal,” “scary,” and a “disaster.”

“We are now very close to 30M jobs lost since mid-March. More than total number of jobs created over the last decade,” tweeted Politico’s chief economic correspondent Ben White, who called the numbers a “brutal wipeout.”

We are now very close to 30M jobs lost since mid-March. More than total number of jobs created over the last decade. A brutal wipeout.

— Ben White (@morningmoneyben) April 30, 2020

“Roughly 1 in 5 Americans are now unemployed,” claimed Washington Post economics correspondent Heather Long.

BREAKING: Over 30 million Americans have now applied for unemployment in the past six weeks.

Another 3.8 million applied last week.

Roughly 1 in 5 Americans are now unemployed.#jobs

— Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) April 30, 2020

Roughly 150m Americans working – so 20%-ish of labour force, yes.

— Kate Andrews (@KateAndrs) April 30, 2020

Tsunami of unemployment, flattening of businesses is coming.

Sigh. It’s going to be bad.

— Norman Goh (@imnormgoh) April 30, 2020

9% of the entire US population now unemployed

An unmitigated disaster. Good thing that the House isn’t here to deal w/ it https://t.co/H8day7UyZv

— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) April 30, 2020

Another 3.8 million unemployed last week. That puts us over 30 million unemployed since all this began. We have never seen anything like this in American history.

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) April 30, 2020

British morning television personality Piers Morgan declared, “The brutal economic toll of this crisis is almost as scary as the virus,” as others used the numbers to call for the reopening of the U.S. economy.

If someone had told me at the start of 2020 that 30 million Americans would file for unemployment before May, I’d have thought that person stark raving bonkers. The brutal economic toll of this crisis is almost as scary as the virus. ? pic.twitter.com/368sKZWRoQ

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) April 30, 2020

“30 million Americans unemployed. 1 in 5 workers. Priority now must be jobs, jobs, jobs. Further congressional action must focus on getting workers their jobs back – ASAP,” tweeted Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), while Fox Sports Radio host Clay Travis wrote, “We have voluntarily created the Great Depression in this country to (over)respond to the coronavirus. It’s well past time to get back to work.”

30 million Americans unemployed. 1 in 5 workers. Priority now must be jobs, jobs, jobs. Further congressional action must focus on getting workers their jobs back – ASAP https://t.co/ENrRPgcbYh

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) April 30, 2020

Over 30 million people have now filed for unemployment in this country in the past five weeks. We have voluntarily created the Great Depression in this country to (over)respond to the coronavirus. It’s well past time to get back to work.

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) April 30, 2020

Watch above via Fox Business.