WASHINGTON
More than 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week as businesses remained shuttered or heavily drawn down due to the novel coronavirus, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Labor Department.
New claims bring to 16.8 million the number of Americans filing for unemployment in the past three weeks as one in 10 workers have lost jobs. Roughly 151 million people were on payrolls in the last monthly jobs report.
Successive states have imposed measures meant to keep residents at home, including shuttering non-essential businesses, and many who are deemed essential, like restaurants, continue operations with decreased staff, in part, because of reduced revenues.
In a bid to triage the economic devastation wrought on the U.S. economy, the Federal Reserve announced moments after the jobs report was made public that it would inject $2.3 trillion in loans to aid employers and households.
The U.S. has surged to lead the world in the number of coronavirus infections, with data from Johns Hopkins University indicating more than 432,500 confirmed infections, including 14,829 deaths and 24,213 recoveries.
The virus has spread to at least 184 countries and regions since it first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December.
Global infections now exceed 1.5 million, as the death toll nears 90,000, according to Johns Hopkins.
