The New York Times turned its front page into an arresting illustration of America's unemployment shock

Poster in Australia
(Image credit: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images)

The Labor Department provided the material Thursday for what Axios' Felix Salmon called "the most stunning chart of this crisis yet — the number of people filing for unemployment spiked to 3.3 million last week, a number unprecedented in U.S. history." The actual number of workers affected by the coronavirus crisis is much larger — lots more Americans took pay cuts or reductions in work hours, and the numbers don't count gig workers. But it's a stunning jump the same, with huge, unknown ramifications, and The New York Times found an arresting way to illustrated it on the cover of Friday's newspaper.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.