7/5/20: Visualizing COVID19 Impact: U.S. Unemployment Claims

We though the Great Recession was bad... until we got COVID19:

The most intensive, in terms of unemployment claims, six months of the Great Recession peaked in new unemployment claims in the week of May 16, 2009 when cumulative 6 months worth of new unemployment claims filings reached - until then unprecedented - 16,815,050. At the end of the week of May 02, 2020, the same number stood at 35,569,978 or more than double the prior historical peak.