WLVT - TV -Last month, 28,000 unemployment claims were filed by workers in Lehigh and Northampton counties. By contrast, according to the Workforce Board Lehigh Valley, in March 2019, 1,600 claims were filed in the counties.
Out-of-work Pennsylvanians are joining over ten million Americans filing for unemployment compensation as the government closes businesses in an effort to fight the spread of coronavirus.
"We're going to see numbers that are going to be much bigger than the last recession we had and things that are only comparable to the Great Depression," said Amy Guisinger, assistant professor of economics at Lafayette College.