New York (CNN Business) The last three weeks have marked one of the most devastating periods in history for the American job market, as first-time claims for unemployment benefits have surged more than 3,000% since early March. Unemployment claims at this level suggest a severe job market decline hardly any American alive has ever seen in their lifetimes. Including the prior week's 3.3 million initial claims , Americans have filed nearly 10 million jobless claims in the last two weeks alone. This "tectonic shift" in the US labor market "implied a real-time unemployment rate of 10.1% at a minimum," said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM. The Refinitiv consensus estimate is for a loss of 100,000 jobs, with the unemployment rate inching up to 3.8%, from its historic low of 3.5%.

Source: CNN April 02, 2020 12:33 UTC