Still it is unknown how many people have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus.
The number of people forced out of work during the coronavirus lockdown continues to soar to historic highs.
The Labor Department said that another 4.4 million people claimed unemployment benefits last week around the country.
That brings the total of jobless claims in just five weeks to more than 26 million people. That is more than all the jobs added in the past 10 years since the Great Recession.
However, the pace of job losses is slowing. About 5.2 million filed during the week that ended April 11 and last week was the third consecutive week of declines.
Namely, the coronavirus crisis has suddenly ended a decade of remarkable job growth. The unemployment rate, which sank to nearly 50-year lows, is expected to soar into double digits.
The pace of job losses has the broader population worried and some expect to lose their jobs in the next 12 months.
The travel and energy sectors were the first ones to start with the reduction of the employees. Furthermore, the job cuts have increasingly spread to white-collar jobs such as lawyers, accountants and consultants.
Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said that the lack of precedent means a lot. Namely, they are unaware of how far this would go.
They hope that the claims would drop below one million per week by the end of May, but this possibility remains uncertain.
To stem the flow of layoffs, Congress created the $349 billion Paycheck Protection Act. This gives companies money if they retain or rehire workers.
The fund ran out of money in just two weeks and the Senate approved a bill this week to replenish it.
Additionally, as more and more workers lose jobs, many states are struggling. Meaning the trust funds used to pay unemployment benefits begin to run low.
The Wall Street Journal reported that nearly half the states said that they had seen decline in their funds.
New York, which has spent half of its fund, has asked for a $4 billion no-interest loan from the federal government. In order to cover unemployment benefits. More than a million people in the state have lost their jobs.
Massachusetts says its fund is also down by half since mid-February, and California has seen a 40% decline.