After unemployment claims spiked to historic altitudes last week, today’s numbers show the trend continuing.
Across the United States 6.6 million people have now filed for unemployment benefit claims, double the last week’s number. In Nebraska more than 25,000 have filed up nearly 9,000 from the week before when the Department of Labor said 40 percent of those claims came from food service employees laid off due to restaurant closures.
The numbers, which were already multitudes higher than ever reported in the United States, have escalated even further in a way that’s hard to conceptualize.
Remember that dramatic Page 1 of the @nytimes last Friday, with the enormous spike showing 3.3 million unemployment claims?
To save the Times graphics team the trouble, this is what the same page would look like with today’s 6.6 million unemployment claims. pic.twitter.com/IQwZRUA13S
— Joshua Benton (@jbenton) April 2, 2020
If you’re facing unemployment, check out the Reader for information on how you fit into the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill passed last week as well as resources for unemployment and beyond.