Record U.S. jobless claims wipe out post-Great Recession employment gains

• A record 26 million Americans likely sought unemployment benefits over the last five weeks, confirming that all the jobs created during the longest employment boom in U.S. history were wiped out in about a month as the novel coronavirus savages the economy.
• Thursday’s weekly jobless claims report from the Labor Department will add to a growing pile of increasingly bleak economic data.
• It will come amid rising protests against nationwide lockdowns to control the spread of COVID-19, the potentially lethal respiratory illness caused by the virus.

(Source: CNBC)