Unemployment claims shattered records on Thursday as 3.28 million Americans filed for benefits last week as society across the United States effectively ground to a halt amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

The US Department of Labour released its latest unemployment report on Thursday, which economic forecasters had already predicted would include historically high figures due to millions of businesses having been forced to shutter their doors to the public.

In a statement, the department said the record total “marks the highest level of seasonally adjusted initial claims in the history of the seasonally adjusted series” and that “the previous high was 695,000 in October of 1982”. The US began tracking initial jobless claims in 1967.

On Thursday morning, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell told NBC’s Today Show the US “may well be in recession” already, a rare acknowledgement from the head of the US bank. However, he said “this is a unique situation” while adding: “There is not anything fundamentally wrong with our economy. Quite the contrary. We are starting from a very strong position.”

Stark differences were reflected in last week’s figures from the week prior, in which a revised 282,000 claims were reported.

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The White House sought to downplay the figures immediately after their release.

US Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin reportedly said the historic unemployment figures “are not relevant” and that businesses would hopefully rehire those who have been kicked off the payroll amid the pandemic.

He cited the Congressional relief package that passed a bipartisan vote in the US Senate, which provides nearly $2 trillion to businesses impacted by the pandemic, as well as direct cash payments of about $1,200 to individual Americans.

In an interview with CNBC about the latest figures, Mr Mnuchin added: “The good thing about this bill is, the president is protecting these people.”

Before the unemployment figures were reported, Reuters analysts estimated the total would be around one million job losses throughout last week.

With nearly 70,000 confirmed cases of the novel virus throughout the country, it remained unclear when the US would eventually resume normal life. More than 100 million Americans are under some form of stay-at-home orders as health officials have encouraged states to “flatten the curve” by practicing self-isolation and social distancing and preventing transmissions.