Over one million people are unemployed in Los Angeles County, with only 45 per cent of local residents still employed, a study from the University of Southern California found.

In mid-March, before the pandemic spurred stay-at-home orders across the country, 61 per cent of those people had jobs, according to the LAist.

The study found that 15 per cent of white people reported losing their jobs, while 18 per cent of Latinos and 21 per cent of black people also reported losses.

"In L.A., there was a certain level of insecurity to begin with, and it has increased a little bit more than it has in the national average," USC's Jill Darling, survey director for the Understanding America Study, told the news outlet.

The Labor Department announced on Thursday that another 5.2 million Americans filed jobless claims, bringing the total number of claims to over 22 million just over the past four weeks.