Over 36 MILLION out of work after new jobless figures show 2.9M more filed for unemployment last week

OVER 36 million Americans are now out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Another 2.9 million workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, raising the total of jobless Americans to nearly 36.5 million in the past eight weeks.

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The latest figures mean that the pandemic has forced roughly 23 percent of American workers to be sidelined.

However, the number of first-time applications has declined for six weeks straight.

The latest jobless claims follow a devastating jobs report last week.

Economists have predicted that employers cut a whopping 21 million or more jobs, meaning that 11 years of job growth since the 2008 Great Recession has evaporated in a single month.

Experts are less concerned about the numbers themselves than they are about how quickly they're growing.

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"What we're talking about here is pretty stunning," Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, told the Associated Press.

"The shock is unique because the cause is unique. It's such a different animal from anything we've ever seen."

The Labor Department announced last Thursday that another 3.2 million US residents filed for unemployment the previous week, bumping up the total of jobless workers to just over 33 million.

Nearly a fifth of Americans expect their incomes to fall in the next six months, according to surveys.

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Economists warn of a slow and lengthy recovery of the economy, which continues to reel from nationwide lockdowns.

Appearing on Fox & Friends last week, President Donald Trump said the unemployment rate was "expected."

"It’s fully expected there’s no surprise everyone expects that," he said.

"Even the Democrats aren’t blaming me for that. What I can do is I can bring it back," he added.

Trump continued, speaking on the economy being at a peak before the COVID-19 crisis.

"We created the greatest economy… best we’ve ever had," he said.

"The best economy in the history of the world."

The coronavirus has devastated the United States, having killed at least 85,197 Americans.

The country currently has a total of 1,430,348 confirmed cases.

However, 310,259 have recovered from the disease.

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