It’s a collapse in employment of historic proportions. Weekly jobless claims in Washington state are five times worse than they were during the worst week of the Great Recession.

Since the escalation of the COVID-19 outbreak in March, a total of 45,000 people in King County have filed for unemployment. In the last week alone, King County filings were up more than 500%.

“Those numbers are hard because what comes as a percentage is actually people’s lives,” said Steven Ross from Washington's Employment Security Department.

Judging by the claims already filed this week, next week's jobless report is likely to be worse, according to state officials.

Unemployment claims at the state level hit 133,464 last week — a number five times worse than the worst week of the Great Recession in December 2008.

State officials said there are no models to prepare them for what may be coming, or for the future shape of a recovery. This situation is much different than the the 2008 financial collapse, which had its roots in financial institutions' corruption of mortgage lending.