US unemployment is rising at a jarring rate, with latest data showing 17 million people have lost their jobs since mid-March, as officials scramble to apply a tourniquet to stem the damage from the coronavirus pandemic, AFP reports.

The 17 million total unemployed in the US "is just over half the nearly 30 million in job losses we expect to result from the spread of the coronavirus, which would be three times the number of job losses that occurred" during the last recession, Oxford Economics said, projecting the unemployment rate reaching 14 per cent in April and 16pc in May.

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