The number of Californians seeking unemployment benefits has officially set a record high.

The Department of Labor reports 186,809 initial claims were filed in California in the week ended March 21. That’s a record high, breaking a mark set in 2010 during the Great Recession’s job market destruction. Claims were up 129,203 — 221% — in a week. It’s the biggest one-week jump in records that date to 1986.

It’s all but guaranteed that these numbers — a quick snapshot of jobs lost since coronavirus ravaged the economy — paint too pretty a picture of a much uglier reality.

Sometimes economic stats aren’t as quick or as accurate as we’d like. Thursday’s data release is what officials call the “advance number of actual initial claims under state programs.” It’s suddenly the hot new number for those looking to quantify the impact of coronavirus-related business closures.

Why do we care? Initial claims for unemployment benefits are seen as an early indicator of job losses. When we usually talk about employment trends, we typically look at monthly unemployment stats. But the first jobless report that will show a decent picture of the depth of California’s business shutdown won’t come out until mid-May.

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So, we’re stuck with this quirky jobless claims data, which is basically a tally of who filled out the paperwork, most likely probably online. Remember, not every person laid off from work quickly files. (Though, if you have lost your job, you should.) Not every applicant qualifies for aid, and those standards can change, as they will with various stimulus plans. Typically unemployment insurance benefits aren’t for those folks in part-time jobs or “gig” work.

With those caveats noted, last week’s tally of claims — triple the weekly average over the past 34 years — is a record that won’t last long. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday said 1 million Californians, so far, have filed for benefits since the coronavirus crisis began. Economists at the California Forecast project statewide claims of around 700,000 when the next filing counts are reported.

Now, 186,809 jobless claims in a week are far from small. Compare this measure of job loss with California’s 840,000 “officially” unemployed at last count in January. It’s easy to predict the state’s record-low jobless rate of 3.9% is now ancient history.

Please note that last week’s California claims ranked third-largest nationally behind Pennsylvania with 378,908 claims, and Ohio (187,784) — both those stats were noted as “state estimates” — and ahead of Texas (155,657). California’s one-week increase ranked sixth-largest among the 50 states.

As you can imagine, there’s similar bad news from the national job market: 3.2 million unemployment claims, seasonally adjusted, were filed in the week ended March 21. That’s nearly a 12-fold jump in a week, also a record-high.

No matter how you add up job losses, the coronavirus-linked spike is off the charts.

To be fair, we often ask too much of our economic stat keepers. It will take months, if not years, to fully understand what is happening today. Our urge to know “right now” conflicts with how detailed, accurate data is compiled.

So, ponder what California Forecast economists estimate: 5 million jobs statewide could be lost because of coronavirus-related “stay at home” shutdowns. These analysts, who were among the most bullish on California before coronavirus, somberly remind us that the Great Recession “only” cost the state 1.1 million jobs.