Another 6.65 million US workers filed for unemployment benefits last week, the most ever recorded, as the coronavirus forces businesses to shut down nationwide, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
The number of first-time applications for jobless benefits for the week ended March 28 was double the number registered in the previous week, which was revised up by 24,000 to 3.3 million -- the previous record, according to the data. "Nearly every state providing comments cited the COVID-19 virus," the report said, noting a wider impact across more industries, especially hotels, but also manufacturing and retail.
The result far surpassed even the highest of estimates by economists, and reflected the growing damage to the US economy as the