The New York Times turned its front page into an arresting illustration of America's unemployment shock

Poster in Australia
(Image credit: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images)

The Labor Department provided the material Thursday for what Axios' Felix Salmon called "the most stunning chart of this crisis yet — the number of people filing for unemployment spiked to 3.3 million last week, a number unprecedented in U.S. history." The actual number of workers affected by the coronavirus crisis is much larger — lots more Americans took pay cuts or reductions in work hours, and the numbers don't count gig workers. But it's a stunning jump the same, with huge, unknown ramifications, and The New York Times found an arresting way to illustrated it on the cover of Friday's newspaper.

See more

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.