A worker, right, hands out paper unemployment applications after a batch of applications in English were brought in, Tuesday, April 7, 2020, at Babcock Park in Hialeah, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
More than 6.6 million people applied for unemployment benefits last week, according to new data from the Department of Labor.
That brings the total number of layoffs since the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. economy to 17 million, or 10 percent of the total workforce, in just three weeks.
This is only the latest in a series of historic surges for the unemployment rolls. Two weeks ago, a record-breaking 6.9 million people filed jobless claims. The week before that saw 3.3 million claims, surpassing the former one-week record of 695,000 set in 1982.
One reason for the continued rise in filings is that more people can now apply. The $2.2 trillion stimulus package that Congress passed at the end of last month expanded unemployment insurance to freelancers, independent contractors, and the self-employed.
How this impacts the economy in the long-run is a topic of fierce debate. Economists are projecting unemployment rates of 10 percent to an astonishing 30 percent by this summer.
The unemployment rate for March rose to 4.4 percent, but that doesn't account for the bulk of the economic damage that followed nationwide stay-at-home orders and shutdowns later in the month.
The Federal Reserve followed up the job numbers with the announcement that it would put $2.3 trillion into the economy through new loan programs for small businesses, states, and municipalities.
President Donald Trump is talking up a joint venture investing up to $500 billion for infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence by a new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank. The new entity, Stargate, will start building out data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of the fast-evolving AI in Texas, according to the White House. The initial investment is expected to be $100 billion and could reach five times that sum. While Trump has seized on similar announcements to show that his presidency is boosting the economy, there were already expectations of a massive buildout of data centers and electricity plants needed for the development of AI.
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