The economy remains in a deep recession, and state and local governments have been hit particularly hard.

We now project that the state budget shortfalls expected from COVID-19’s economic fallout will total a cumulative $615 billion over the current and next two state fiscal years.

While the private-sector job market performed somewhat better in May than many economists had expected, states remain in dire straits. In just three months, state and local governments have furloughed or laid off more than 1.5 million workers — twice as many as in all of the Great Recession.

Many of these and other workers will lose their jobs permanently in the coming weeks as states cut spending to balance their budgets, unless the federal government provides substantially more aid.

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• We’ve compiled all of our COVID-19 analysis in one place and updating it regularly.