The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits in the last three weeks likely totaled a staggering 15 million as tough measures to control the novel coronavirus outbreak abruptly ground the country to halt, which would cement views the economy was in deep recession.

Thursday’s weekly jobless claims report from the labour department, the most timely data on the economy’s health, would strengthen economists' expectations of job losses of up to 20 million in April. The government reported last Friday that the economy purged 701,000 jobs in March. That was the most job losses since the Great Recession and ended the longest employment boom in US history that started in late 2010.

“These dismal numbers suggest another record-breaking April jobs report,” said Beth Ann Bovino, chief US economist at S&P Global Ratings in New York. “America is now in recession and as it appears to deepen, the question is how long it will it take before the US recovers.”

he number of initial claims for state unemployment benefits probably slipped to a seasonally adjusted 5.250 million for the week ended April 4 from 6.648 million, according to a Reuters survey of economists.

The anticipated lower reading is likely because the model that the government uses to strip out seasonal fluctuations shows a downside bias for last week’s data. States also appear to be struggling to process claims.

Estimates in the survey were as high as 9.295 million. Going by the average forecast, last week's claims data would bring the cumulative jobless benefits claims to more than 15 million since the week ending March 21. With more than 95% of Americans under “stay-at-home” or “shelter-in-place” orders, reports continue to mount of state employment offices being overwhelmed.