Jobless claims reflect new reality

Labor Department reports 30% spike, one of largest ever recorded.

In an early sign of the coronavirus pandemic’s devastating effect on American workers, the Labor Department on Thursday reported a 30% increase in unemployment claims last week, one of the largest spikes on record.

The surge — 281,000 new claims — reflects a crushing new reality: Any hopes that businesses could keep their staffs largely intact have quickly evaporated.

“I started laying people off this Monday, not knowing how bad it was,” said Barry Rosenberg, founder of Vending One, a Los Angeles company that stocks and maintains vending machines and self-serve kiosks in malls, office complexes, jails, schools and casinos. “On Tuesday, we started restricting hours. By next Monday, I don’t know that they’ll be any work.”

Jon Blomer, who services accounts and refills those machines, was one of the first to lose his job. “There’s not enough hours to go around, and everyone’s been there longer,” said Blomer, 33, who has worked at Vending One for a year. “I understand.”

Job losses have become so sensitive that the Trump administration is asking state labor officials to delay releasing the precise number of unemployment claims.

In an email sent Wednesday and shared with The New York Times, the Labor Department instructed state officials to do nothing more than “provide information using generalities to describe claims levels (very high, large increase)” until the department releases the total number of national claims next Thursday.

The message noted that the data was “monitored closely by policymakers and financial markets to determine appropriate actions in light of fast-changing economic conditions” and should be closely held.

To stanch the torrent of job losses, officials in Washington are racing to design a $1 trillion stimulus. Senate Republicans put forward a blueprint Thursday that includes loans to big corporations and small businesses, large corporate tax cuts, and checks as large as $1,200 per adult for individuals earning less than $99,000 a year.

In the meantime, as employers at global conglomerates and kitchen-table offices anxiously grapple with the economy’s partial shutdown, tens of thousands of laidoff workers like Blomer are jamming government websites and phone lines to apply for unemployment benefits.

In some states, overwhelmed systems collapsed under the weight.