Jobless claims during coronavirus crisis surpass 30 million

The number of Americans who have filed initial unemployment claims amid the coronavirus crisis has now surpassed 30 million.

The Labor Department said on Thursday that more than 3.8 million additional Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, which brings the six-week total to about 30.3 million, The Associated Press reports.

Last week's report from the Labor Department had brought the five-week total of jobless claims to more than 26 million, which meant that all of the job gains since the Great Recession had been wiped out. The 30 million number, NBC News notes, represents roughly 18 percent of the workforce. Thursday's report came in above the 3.5 million filings economists were expecting, CNBC reports, and it comes after the previous week's report showed 4.4 million additional unemployment filings.

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On Wednesday, the Commerce Department said the economy during the first quarter of this year experienced its biggest contraction since the Great Recession, but the worst is expected to come in the second quarter. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned this week, "We are going to see economic data for the second quarter that is worse than any data we have seen for the economy."