More than 6.6 million people filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week, the Labor Department said Thursday, setting a grim record for the second straight week and bringing the two-week total to nearly 10 million.
“What usually takes months or quarters to happen in a recession is happening in a matter of weeks,” Michelle Meyer, chief U.S. economist for Bank of America Merrill Lynch tells The New York Time. Many economists are expecting a decline in gross domestic product that rivals the worst periods of the Great Depression.
Until last month, the worst week for unemployment filings was 695,000 in 1982.