In just 3 weeks, more than 16 million United States workers have lost their jobs as the coronavirus outbreak shut down many businesses and it amounts to more losses than the most recent recession produced over 2 years from December 2007 to June 2009.

Over 16 million people had filed unemployment claims within three weeks in the U.S since most businesses had closed due to COVID 19 outbreak.

The United States Department of Labor states that the unemployment rate was 7,455,000(5.1 per cent) for the week ending 28 March 2020, an increase of 4,396,000 from the previous week's revised level. In preceding years the highest unemployment rate was 6,635,000 in May 2009. Consequently, this is the highest level of unemployment in the history of the seasonally adjusted series.

For the week ending 21 March, 28 March and 4 April 2020 there have been 3,307,000, 6,867,000 and 6,606,000 unemployment claims respectively. As per the three-week tally, 16,780,000 people have made unemployment claims. (Ref. page no: 4)

According to Labor Statistics, the unemployment number and unemployment rate in November 2009 was 15.4 million and 10.0 per cent and the number of unemployed persons was 7.5 million, and the jobless rate was 4.9 per cent at the beginning of the recession in December 2007.

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19 including symptoms, prevention and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organisation or your national healthcare authority.