1 in 6 Americans Have Lost Their Jobs in Last Month as Unemployment Continues to Soar

More than 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the record total to 26 million in the five weeks since the coronavirus pandemic forced millions of employers to temporarily shut down. The AP reports that about one in six Americans have lost their jobs since mid-March, by far the worst string of layoffs ever recorded, while some economists fear that the unemployment rate for April could reach as high as 20 percent.