Coronavirus-Crisis-Triggered Unemployment Claims Soar in the U.S. (6.6 million filed just last week) and Virginia (114k initial claims last week)

Ugh. And the worst thing about this is it’s only going to get (a lot) worse before it gets better. Especially since we’re talking about this COVID-19 cases curve from hell, and also given that Gov. Ralph Northam said yesterday that this crisis probably won’t peak in Virginia until next month. Double ugh.

In sum:

• To quote Ali Velshi of MSNBC: “A record 6.6 MILLION Americans filed for unemployment last week, adding to 3.28 MILLION from the prior week, for a total of of nearly 10 MILLION people in two weeks.”
• From the Department of Labor press release (see below): “This marks the highest level of seasonally adjusted initial claims in the history of the seasonally adjusted series.”
• Here in Virginia, initial claims filed during the week (see state statistics, below, from the Department of Labor) ended 3/28 were 114,104, up 67,827 from the previous week’s 46,277.
• The “State Supplied Comment” (see below) from Virginia for the previous week notes “Layoffs in the accommodation and food services industry.”