Unemployment claims graphically illustrated

So I’m up here in Maine and see absolutely no reason to return to Greenwich at the moment — better 300 miles from New York than 30, and I’ve watched the small stores and restaurants shut down in waves, like the lamps of Europe one hundred years ago. Will they be lit again in our lifetime? All of America is suffering this devistation, of course, but in a state with such a small population: 1.3 million, the impact of coronavirus is easy to see, and chart.

Unemployment claims soared this week, as shown above.

Of the 622,000 employed, total, in the state, 21, 459 filed unemployment claims in just the past five days. Worse, the state unemployment offices, like those in other states, has been swamped and thousands more claims haven’t been processed yet and added to the official tally. Each day I pass by more stores which the day before were still open and that closed overnight. I did a mental tally of one local gas station/service mart near me that closed yesterday: there were five people employed there each shift, so at least ten jobs evaporated overnight. The book stores and coffee shops of Portland, and there were many, all went dark in the past ten days, as did my favorite tackle shop. Add in the self-employed, and there are thousands of them, and it’s a horribly dark picture.

And so on. Again, I know this is disaster is occurring throughout the country, but the chart I posted above is still astonishing. From a thriving state economy to utter disaster, in days.