Coronavirus Impact: US Unemployment Claims Double To 6.65 Million From 3.31 Million Last Week

United States (US) President Donald Trump cannot catch a break, it would seem. For the week ending 28 March, the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose to 6.65 million from the previous week’s high of 3.31 million (revised from 3.28 million).

The 9.96 million combined initial claims in the last two weeks are equivalent to the total in the first 7 months of the 2007-2009 recession, as per a report in Bloomberg.

The rising count can be explained by the closed businesses as many Americans work on a contractual basis. The figures were released by the Labour department.

The numbers are further expected to rise as the US enters a long period of lockdown ahead. With the number of cases surpassing 215,000, many more states within the country would be required to enforce a lockdown, thus further adding to the job crisis.

The unemployment claims have already been factored into the $2 trillion stimulus package ushered by the GOP last month. Under the package, individuals will be applicable for checks up to $1200 and married couples filing jointly will be eligible for checks up to $2400 with an extra $500 for each child.

After the 2008 financial crisis, the unemployment number rose to 11.1 million in December 2008.