The ranks of the unemployed are swelling in ways not seen before. This week, 6.6 million people filed new unemployment claims; last week's jobless claims were revised from 6.6 to 6.9 million. Roughly 17 million people have filed for unemployment over the last three weeks.
The numbers have surged as state-ordered coronavirus lockdowns have brought huge swaths of the economy to a halt. Not even during the peak of the Great Recession did the unemployment numbers come close to this latest spike, with 665,000 people applying for benefits the week of March 28, 2009.
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The interactive chart below, dating back to 1967, shows the stunning surge in claims over the past couple weeks.
