Unemployment claims in Florida increased by 205 percent in the last week of March, ending March 28, resulting from stay at home orders, businesses closing and companies furloughing and laying off employees due to the COVID-19 crisis. The number of claims set a U.S. record for the second consecutive week.

According to data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor, initial unemployment claims in Florida for the week ending March 28 were 227,000, an increase of 152,687 from the 74,313 claims filed the previous week.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment claims nationally for the week were a record 6.6 million – up 3.3 million from the previous week. The total represents the highest level of seasonally adjusted initial claims ever, breaking last week’s record of 3.3 million. Before last week, the previous high was 695,000 in October 1982.