Unemployment claims from last week alone are nearly five times higher than at the peak of the Great Recession

The coronavirus pandemic has caused cities and states to order their residents to stay home in order to slow the spread of the deadly virus, and that’s caused countless businesses to have to close their doors, either temporarily or for good. The sudden shuttering of so much of the economy has cause many people to be laid off or furloughed, and we now have the numbers that show just how dire the situation is: 3.28 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, shattering any record that’s ever existed.