Finance International Lifestyle News Opinons Politics

Analysis Shows More Workers Filed for Unemployment Last Week Than Any Other in US History

A new analysis released Tuesday shows that more U.S. workers filed unemployment claims last week than during any other week in the nation’s history.

An estimated 3.4 million Americans filed such claims for the week ending March 21, according to the findings from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

“This will dwarf every other week in history,” wrote EPI’s Aaron Sojourner and Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, adding, “The true impacts are undoubtedly of larger scale than described here.”



China Needs Russia Fighting in Ukraine So Conflict Keeps Trump Occupied: Report
Trump defends use of ‘shylock’ term at rally amid antisemitism claims
Carville Debuts Absurd New Theory About Trump Stealing 2026 Midterms, O’Reilly Rips Him to Shreds Over it
Democrats project doom and gloom, not celebration, with July 4 messages
Subway riders deliver street justice to brute who grabbed screaming woman on platform
Trump administration providing support in aftermath of deadly Texas flood
‘Christian’ University Under Fire Over Grant to ‘Foster Inclusion’ of ‘LGBTQIA+ Individuals and Women’ in the Church
WaPo Defends Alleged Hounding of Intel Officials: Tulsi’s ODNI Strikes Back with Cutting 3-Word Response
Xi Jinping’s surprise no-show at BRICS Summit fuels speculation about China’s global standing
Trump on a roll, back-to-back victory weeks: White House Report Card
North Carolina governor vetoes Republican-led anti DEI and trans legislation
Three deceased campers identified as death toll rises after devastating Texas flood
Parents desperately seeking answers on missing campers after Texas flood
Republicans praise ‘big, beautiful bill’s’ work requirement for Medicaid: ‘We’ve got to get back to work’
Revolting: Pop Star Laughs and Sings About Murdering ‘4 or 5’ of Her Own Children Via Abortion

See also  Trump mourns Jimmy Swaggart after televangelist dies at 90

The startling calculation—based on claims in 35 states and Washington, D.C. and extrapolated to the other 15 states—comes as the nation continues to experience a rise in cases of the novel coronavirus—with over 46,000 confirmed as of Tuesday—and as ordinary Americans feel the economic and societal impacts of the crisis, with schools, stores, and work places temporarily shuttered, varying degrees of lockdowns in place, and households and frontline workers still wondering if lawmakers will put their urgent needs above those of corporate America.

A graph accompanying the new EPI analysis, which is based on data from news reports from March 15 to March 21, illustrates the enormous jump in unemployment claims—even if the actual figure ends up being on the analysts’ low-end projection of 3 million claims. At no other point in the timeline shown does the figure even scrape 1 million.

The U.S. is experiencing a record-breaking spike in unemployment. Figure: Economic Policy Institute

Reaction to the findings was stark:


China Needs Russia Fighting in Ukraine So Conflict Keeps Trump Occupied: Report
Trump defends use of ‘shylock’ term at rally amid antisemitism claims
Carville Debuts Absurd New Theory About Trump Stealing 2026 Midterms, O’Reilly Rips Him to Shreds Over it
Democrats project doom and gloom, not celebration, with July 4 messages
Subway riders deliver street justice to brute who grabbed screaming woman on platform
Trump administration providing support in aftermath of deadly Texas flood
‘Christian’ University Under Fire Over Grant to ‘Foster Inclusion’ of ‘LGBTQIA+ Individuals and Women’ in the Church
WaPo Defends Alleged Hounding of Intel Officials: Tulsi’s ODNI Strikes Back with Cutting 3-Word Response
Xi Jinping’s surprise no-show at BRICS Summit fuels speculation about China’s global standing
Trump on a roll, back-to-back victory weeks: White House Report Card
North Carolina governor vetoes Republican-led anti DEI and trans legislation
Three deceased campers identified as death toll rises after devastating Texas flood
Parents desperately seeking answers on missing campers after Texas flood
Republicans praise ‘big, beautiful bill’s’ work requirement for Medicaid: ‘We’ve got to get back to work’
Revolting: Pop Star Laughs and Sings About Murdering ‘4 or 5’ of Her Own Children Via Abortion

Sojourner and Goldsmith-Pinkham, both research associates at EPI, put the projection into the context of the nation’s unemployment rate:

For scale, consider that 3.4 million Americans moving from employment to unemployment would raise the number of the unemployed from 5.7 million to 9.1 million. This alone would raise the unemployment rate by more than half, by 2 percentage points from 3.5% to 5.5%, moving back to 2015 levels in just one week. This spike represents 2.2% of all jobs in the economy. The largest monthly rise in the unemployment rate in American history was plus 1.3 percentage points in October 1949.


China Needs Russia Fighting in Ukraine So Conflict Keeps Trump Occupied: Report
Trump defends use of ‘shylock’ term at rally amid antisemitism claims
Carville Debuts Absurd New Theory About Trump Stealing 2026 Midterms, O’Reilly Rips Him to Shreds Over it
Democrats project doom and gloom, not celebration, with July 4 messages
Subway riders deliver street justice to brute who grabbed screaming woman on platform
Trump administration providing support in aftermath of deadly Texas flood
‘Christian’ University Under Fire Over Grant to ‘Foster Inclusion’ of ‘LGBTQIA+ Individuals and Women’ in the Church
WaPo Defends Alleged Hounding of Intel Officials: Tulsi’s ODNI Strikes Back with Cutting 3-Word Response
Xi Jinping’s surprise no-show at BRICS Summit fuels speculation about China’s global standing
Trump on a roll, back-to-back victory weeks: White House Report Card
North Carolina governor vetoes Republican-led anti DEI and trans legislation
Three deceased campers identified as death toll rises after devastating Texas flood
Parents desperately seeking answers on missing campers after Texas flood
Republicans praise ‘big, beautiful bill’s’ work requirement for Medicaid: ‘We’ve got to get back to work’
Revolting: Pop Star Laughs and Sings About Murdering ‘4 or 5’ of Her Own Children Via Abortion

See also  Supreme Court backs Trump bid to deport criminals to South Sudan

Grim as the scenario painted by the analsis is, reality may be even worse. The researchers wrote that the actual tally of claims “could be substantially higher.” Not all unemployed workers are able to file unemployment insurance claims either, and for those that do, they’ll get about half—or less—of their regular income. The end of the coronavirus crisis is also not in the immediate future.

All that points to the need for the federal government to provide states with more aid.

“American working families are paying a large price through no fault of their own,” wrote Sojourner and Goldsmith-Pinkham. “But there is no shortcutting public health to get the American economy back to work. A healthy economy requires public health.”

Story cited here.

 

Share this article:
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter