Thursday’s for the week ending March 21st are going to be something we have never seen before. According to Bloomberg, the average estimate of economists surveyed is 1,500,000, with a high estimate of 4,000,000 and a low estimate of 360,000.
For comparison, last week’s initial claims number was only 281,000, while the prior week was 211,000.
Service businesses have been forced to close their doors until the coronavirus pandemic is under control. These include cruise ships, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, gyms, retail stores, etc. In addition, many non-essential factories were forced to temporarily shut down. As a result, many of these businesses have had to lay off workers, sending possibly millions of people to file for unemployment benefits.
To put this week’s initial jobless claims number in historical perspective, the highest number of claims ever recorded during a single week was 695,000 in October of 1982. The second…
