Share!
The coronavirus pandemic has left at least 10 percent of American workers jobless in the past three weeks after a record 6.6 million new claims for unemployment benefits were filed last week. Daily Mail reports.
Nearly 10 million people applied for the benefits in the last two weeks of March as COVID-19 spread throughout the country and businesses closed.
The number likely increase because many states are still clearing out backlogs of applications for unemployment aid.
More companies are also resorting to layoffs to save money as they run through their cash cushions as virus-related shutdowns persist.
Economists say up to 50 million jobs are vulnerable to coronavirus-related layoffs – about one-third of all the jobs in the United States. The figure is based on a calculation of positions that are deemed non-essential by state and federal governments and that cannot be done from home.
It is unlikely however that all the workers will be laid off or file a jobless claim but it suggests the extraordinary magnitude of unemployment that could result from the pandemic.
