Over 22 million Americans have had to file for unemployment benefits in the last month as the coronavirus pandemic causes tons of folks to lose their jobs. Recent federal data shows that more than 5.2 million people in the United States made unemployment claims last week, putting the total number in the last 30 days over 22 million, which is more than the entire population of Florida. This number is also greater than the amount of jobs that have been created since the end of the last downturn of the economy a decade ago, which is 21.5 million. These statistics indicate that 13.5% of the American workforce has been sacrificed "as efforts to stem the pandemic have forced businesses to close their doors and lay off workers across the country."
“It is shocking to see this level of unemployment claims because the scale is comparable to the entire recovery over a decade following the Great Recession,” said Glassdoor senior economist, Daniel Zhao. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the highest number of unemployment claims filed in a single week was 695,000 in October of 1982. “Some of the job losses are temporary. But there’s no doubt that some companies of all sizes will fail,” said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at financial-services firm, Bankrate.