It was announced this morning that 6.6 million people had filed for unemployment in America over the past week. How bad is that? This bad:

Andy Bruce @BruceReuters

Horrifying economic data from the U.S. 6.648 million jobless claims in the last week, worse than any of the 40 economists polled by Reuters feared. This chart goes back to 1967 👇

April 2nd 2020

72 Retweets55 Likes

Derek Thompson @DKThomp

At unemployment's peak post-Great Recession, there were 7.7 million more officially unemployed people than before the downturn. In the last two weeks, 9.9 million ppl filed initial jobless claims. The labor market is contracting at the rate of one Great Recession per 10 days.

April 2nd 2020

287 Retweets503 Likes

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

10 million new claims for unemployment insurance over 2 weeks. That's around 20 times the normal rate, and understates actual job losses. For comparison, 9 million jobs lost in the Great Recession US weekly jobless claims double to 6.6 millionFirst-time claims for unemployment insurance had been expected to total 3.1 million, according to economists surveyed by Dow Jones.cnbc.com

April 2nd 2020

1,181 Retweets1,875 Likes

CNN @CNN

JUST IN: 6.6 million workers filed for their first week of unemployment benefits in the week ending March 28 — a new historic high. A week earlier, 3.3 million Americans filed for their first week of benefits, which was the largest number ever at the time. A 3,000% jump in jobless claims has devastated the US job marketThe last three weeks have marked one of the most devastating periods in history for the American job market, as first-time claims for unemployment benefits have surged more than 3,000% since early March.cnn.it

April 2nd 2020

482 Retweets789 Likes

Here is what Justin Wolfers, an economist at the University of Michigan, had to say about it:

6.6 million filing for unemployment in seven days, 10 million in two weeks....who is to say whether this is bad or good? Truly, it is a mystery.

Wolfers later deleted the tweet.