The numbers are staggering, even bigger than anticipated. The Labor Department reports:
In the week ending March 21, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 3,283,000, an increase of 3,001,000 from the previous week’s revised level. This marks the highest level of seasonally adjusted initial claims in the history of the seasonally adjusted series.
To put this in perspective CNBC writes, “The number shatters the Great Recession peak of 665,000 in March 2009 and the all-time mark of 695,000 in October 1982. The previous week, which reflected the period before the worst of the coronavirus hit, was just 282,000.
Layoffs were largest in the service industry, transportation, real estate rental and leasing, arts, entertainment, and recreation. And things are expected to get worse before they get better. New York Times business reporter Ben Casselman says, “As bad as they will be (and they will be catastrophically bad), they will NOT reflect the full scope of the problem. The true number of lost jobs is significantly higher.”
We also have reports out of numerous states that unemployment systems have been overwhelmed and some people have not been able to register for benefits yet.
