by Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse Blog
The pace at which Americans are losing their jobs is absolutely breathtaking. According to the Wall Street Journal, the largest number of new claims for unemployment benefits ever recorded in a single week prior to this year was 695,000 during the week that ended October 2nd, 1982. So that means that what we are now witnessing is completely unprecedented. About half the country is currently under some sort of a “shelter-in-place” order, and there has never been a nationwide shutdown of businesses anything like what we are currently experiencing. Many are hoping that America will be able to “get back to normal” soon, but that all depends on the progression of this pandemic. The number of newly confirmed cases in the U.S. spiked by more than 11,000 on Wednesday, and the number of new deaths continues to escalate at a very alarming rate. Until those numbers start to improve, life is definitely not going to “get back to normal”.