6.6 million people file for unemployment in a week; bringing total to record 10 million

WASHINGTON – Accelerating layoffs brought the number of Americans applying for jobless benefits to a record 10 million in just the last two weeks, an unprecedented level that pointed toward doubledigit unemployment and prompted calls for another tranche of federal rescue aid to avoid a second Great Depression.

The U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday that 6.6 million people filed for initial unemployment claims in the week ending March 28, double the record 3.3 million from the previous week and far more than what most economists were expecting.

That was just the latest evidence of how fast and how far the economic damage from the coronavirus is spreading across the country. Separate reports this week showed car sales in the U.S. plunged 39% in March, manufacturing fell back into recession, and trade showed early signs of faltering.

It was the weekly unemployment benefit filings, however, that left economists stunned, eliciting words such as “tectonic,” “cataclysmic,” “eye-watering.”

“Today’s jobs report underscores the historic devastation that is happening in America’s labor market,” said Josh Lipsky, director of global business and economics policy at the nonpartisan Atlantic Council think tank. “To put it bluntly, the U.S. economy went from full speed to full stop, and millions of workers were not wearing seat belts.”

The U.S. jobless rate in February was a 50-year low of 3.5%, with the economy having generated 273,000 net new jobs for the second straight month.

But that’s all history now.

The government Friday will issue its first monthly employment report, for March, since COVID-19 cases began to mushroom across the country.