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  • Brett Spurr
    • Apr 2, 2020
    • 1 min read

Unemployment Claims

Unemployment is soaring, that's no secret. But I'd like to share a few charts just to illustrate how unprecedented all this is.

Here is a chart of the weekly claims for unemployment. Obviously, you can see that during recessions, unemployment claims soar. It looks as if this time around, unemployment is higher than 2008 or 1981- two severe recessions. (Then scroll below the chart).



But the chart above has an unadjusted scale on the y-axis. That is, it uses the scale that was appropriate since statistics begans back in the 1960s. Here's a look at what is actually happening:


That's right, this week's claims is 10X any previous record. This is truly unprecedented.

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