BREAKING: U.S. Unemployment Claims Rise to 6.6. Million, Shattering Last Week’s Record

A record-breaking 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment last week as the coronavirus continues to bring the national economy to a virtual standstill.

The new joblessness numbers from the Department of Labor eclipse last week’s count, which also shattered records when 3.3 million people claimed unemployment. Altogether, this means 10 million Americans have lost their jobs in the last two weeks, thanks to the mass business shutdowns put into effect to halt the spread of Covid-19.

The joblessness claims seem to have exceeded expectations among multiple economists since Bloomberg and NBC said projected losses were expected to stay between 3 and 6 million. CBS also noted that it’s possible these new figures are an underestimation if state labor departments were overwhelmed by the surge of unemployment applicants.

“It is pointless for me to even make a chart of it for you because it just looks like a geyser going straight up.” said CNN’s Christine Romans in response to the news. “I’m surprised the state employment offices were able to handle this kind of volume. Last week we know there were so many people filing for unemployment benefits, they weren’t able to get all of them.”

The story is breaking and we will update accordingly.

Watch above, via CNN.