The Graphic Truth: US jobless claims stay sky high

US new jobless claims stayed sky high this week as coronavirus-related quarantine orders continue to force layoffs. Some 6.6 million people applied for unemployment in the last week alone, bringing the total number of fresh jobless claims to more than 16 million since mid-March. Economists expect the unemployment rate to soar from a 50-year low of 3.5 percent in February to 15 percent or higher in the near term. How does that compare with the jobless rate during the Great Depression or the Great Recession? Have a look.

More from GZERO Media

A girl is inoculated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) during a vaccination event hosted by Miami-Dade County and Miami Heat, at FTX Arena in Miami, Florida, USA, on August 5, 2021.
REUTERS/Marco Bello/File Photo

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo’s plan to repeal childhood vaccine mandates in the state’s public schools has prompted further debate over shots, states’ rights, and medical freedoms.

The body of Israeli Levi Itzhak Pash, who was killed when Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a bus stop at the outskirts of Jerusalem, is transported on the day of his funeral procession in Jerusalem September 8, 2025.
REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

A group of terrorists from the West Bank opened fire on civilians at a major junction in Jerusalem on Monday morning, killing at least six people and injuring another 21.

- YouTube

Siddhartha Mukherjee explains how AI is designing entirely new medicines—molecules that may have never existed—by learning the rules of chemistry and generating drugs with unprecedented speed and precision.

Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage gestures as he attends the party's national conference at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, United Kingdom, on September 5, 2025.
REUTERS/Isabel Infantes

Right-wing populist parties are now, for the first time, leading the polls in Europe’s three largest economies.