More than 33M Americans are out of work in coronavirus pandemic as 3.2M more file for unemployment in past week
MORE than 33 million Americans are out of work as the coronavirus pandemic continues to grip the US economy.
Another 3.2 million workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, raising the total of jobless Americans since the virus hit the US to just over 33 million.
The April unemployment rate likely quadrupled to at least 15 percent from just 4.4 percent in March.
Economists have predicted that employers cut a whopping 21 million or more jobs, meaning that 11 years of job growth since the Great Recession has evaporated in a single month.
Experts are less concerned about the numbers themselves than they are about how quickly they’re growing.
“What we’re talking about here is pretty stunning,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, told the Associated Press.
“The shock is unique because the cause is unique. It’s such a different animal from anything we’ve ever seen.”
The Labor Department announced last Thursday that another 3.8 million Americans filed for unemployment last week, bumping up the total of jobless workers to just over 30 million.
Economists warned last week that unemployment in April could skyrocket to 20 percent, the highest rate since it skyrocketed to 25 percent during the Great Depression.
Nearly a fifth of Americans expect their incomes to fall in the next six months, the Conference Board found, reinforcing the idea that Americans will likely pinch pennies in the coming months.
Thursday’s jobless claims bolster economists’ views of a slow and lengthy recovery of the US economy, which continues to reel from nationwide lockdowns even as some states prepare to reopen.
Friday’s jobs report will likely bring the total number of US layoffs to nearly 34 million since shutdowns began seven weeks ago.
As companies continue to cut jobs in the midst of a sharp downturn, the economy could possibly shrink at an unfathomable 40 percent rate in the April-June quarter.
The dismal jobless numbers were released as President Donald Trump branded the coronavirus a “worse attack than 9/11 or Pearl Harbor”.
Trump made the comments at the Oval Office on Thursday as he said the US economy couldn’t remain at an indefinite standstill, adding: “We have to be warriors.”
“We went through the worst attack we’ve ever had in our country,” he said.
“This is worse than Pearl Harbor. This is worse than the World trade Center.
“There’s never been an attack like this.”
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A total of 2,977 people were killed in the September 11 attacks in New York City, while 2,403 died at Pearl Harbor.
New York City’s coronavirus death toll is 8.5 times higher than that of 9/11 – more than 25,000 people have died throughout the state.
The virus has killed more than 72,800 Americans and sickened more than 1.2 million others across the country.