Economies reeling

Jobless rate in US skyrockets as European activity collapses

BLEAK economic figures have underscored the worldwide economic pain inflicted by the coronavirus: The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits has climbed past 30 million, while Europe’s economies have gone into an epic slide.

And as bad as the numbers are, some are already outdated and the true economic picture is almost certainly much worse. The statistics are likely to stoke the debate over whether to ease the lockdowns that have closed factories and other businesses.

In the US, 3.8 million laidoff workers applied for jobless benefits last week, raising the total to 30.3 million in the six weeks since the outbreak took hold. The lay-offs amount to one in six American workers and encompass more people than the entire population of Texas. When the US unemployment rate for April comes out next week, it could be as high as 20 per cent – a figure not seen since the depression of the 1930s, when joblessness peaked at 25 per cent.

There was grim new data across Europe, too, where more than 130,000 people with the virus have died. The economy in the 19 countries using the euro shrank 3.8 per cent in the first quarter, the biggest contraction since the eurozone countries began keeping joint statistics 25 years ago.

“This is the saddest day for the global economy we have ever seen,” High Frequency Economics said in a report.

Even then, the statistics do not capture the enormity of the crisis. The quarterly figures cover January through March, and many of the lockdowns in Europe and the US were not imposed until March – the second half of March in many places in the US.

The virus has killed more than 230,000 people worldwide, including more than 61,000 in the US, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Confirmed infections globally topped 3.2 million, with 1 million in the US.