The latest round of coronavirus-induced layoffs and furloughs soared by another 6.6 million in the first week of April, bringing total job losses in less than a month to a stupefying 16.8 million.

Initial jobless claims, a rough proxy for job losses, have now posted increases of 6.6 million, 6.9 million and 3.3 million in the last three weekly readings since the middle of March.

Initial jobless claims leaped a seasonally adjusted 6.6 million in the week of March 29 to April 4, topping the 6 million MarketWatch forecast.

What’s more, new claims in the last week of March were revised up by 219,000 to a record 6.87 million, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Source: Marketwatch