Unemployment claims have spiked to 6.65 million across the country, the Department of Labor said in a press release on Thursday.
Unemployment claims have doubled since last week when the Labor Department reported that about 3 million people were seeking unemployment. That figure was already by far the highest number of unemployment claims the department had ever seen.
Every single state in the union saw an increase of more than 1,000 unemployment claims in the last week, the department said. Pennsylvania led the way with an increase of 362,012 unemployment claims in the last week. Ohio, Massachusetts, Texas, California, Michigan, Washington, Minnesota, New Jersey and Illinois all saw jobless claims increase by at least 100,000 in the last week.
Jobless claims have spiked as local governments across the country have issued the closure of non-essential businesses in recent weeks in an effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
Issues in the labor market reflect recent struggles in the stock market. Since reaching its previous high in February, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen nearly 9,000 points.
More on this as it develops.
