Record-shattering 6.6 million Americans filed jobless claims last week

6.6 million Americans last week filed for unemployment -- doubling the previous record of 3.3 million people who had filed for unemployment just one week earlier.

According to CNBC, the new jobless claims numbers were vastly worse than the consensus estimate of 3.1 million claims, and are indicative that the economy is collapsing at a rate even faster than expected.

"Before the coronavirus shut down major parts of the U.S. economy, the highest week for claims was 695,000 in 1982," CNBC writes. "The Great Recession high was 665,000 in March 2009."