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

(Image credit: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images)

published 27 March 2020

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.

The New York Daily News, meanwhile, did its Daily News thing. Peter Weber

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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.