US unemployment claims rise by a record 6.65 million – and worse is set to come

The coronavirus pandemic has led to 10 million people applying for unemployment benefits in two weeks, the sharpest increase in American history.

By Emily Tamkin

A man receives bags with food as Volunteers from City harvest distribute food in Harlem on March 28, 2020 in New York City. - With tens of thousands of New Yorkers out of work due to the epidemic, New York food banks are facing an influx of newcomers who never before would have needed them. (Photo by Kena Betancur / AFP) (Photo by KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images)

Economists predicted that the blow to the US economy from coronavirus would be bad. They just didn’t predict it would be this bad. More than 6.65 million people in the country have filed for unemployment benefits in the past week. Around 3.3 million filed the week before that. This means that in the past two weeks a total of 10 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits. It is the sharpest rise in claims in US history, and by a considerable margin; by comparison, prior to last week, the most dramatic rise was in 1982 (695,000 claims).