The data from the Labor Department revealed on Thursday the number of applications for unemployment benefits soared much more than forecast last week as a sudden shutdown of businesses across the country as a part of social distancing policies aimed at keeping the coronavirus from spreading caused a cascade of joblessness.

According to the report, the initial claims for unemployment benefits climbed to a seasonally adjusted 6,648,000 for the week ended March 28. That was the highest reading on record.

Economists had expected 3,500,000 new claims last week.

Claims for the prior week remained unchanged at 3,283,000.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average of claims climbed by 327,250 to 2,054,054.