The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
U.S. unemployment surges to Depression-era level of 14.7%
WASHINGTON » The coronavirus crisis has sent U.S. unemployment surging to 14.7%, a level last seen when the country was in the throes of the Depression and President Franklin D. Roosevelt was assuring Americans that the only thing to fear was fear itself.
And because of government errors and the particular way the Labor Department measures the job market, the true picture is even worse. By some calculations, the unemployment rate stands at 23.6%, not far from the Depression peak of nearly 25%.
The Labor Department said Friday that 20.5 million jobs vanished in April in the worst monthly loss on record, triggered by the coast-to-coast shutdowns of factories, stores, offices and other businesses.
The breathtaking collapse is certain to intensify the pushpull across the U.S. over how and when to ease stay-at-home restrictions. And it robs President
Donald Trump of the ability consider their job loss temporary, to point to a strong economy a result of businesses that were as he runs for reelection. forced to close suddenly but hope
“The jobs report from hell is to reopen and recall their staffs. here,” said Sal Guatieri, senior economistatBMOCapitalMarkets,“one Whether most of those workers can return anytime soon, though, never seen before and unlikely to will be determined by how well be seen again barring another pandemic policymakers, businesses and the or meteor hitting the Earth.” public deal with the health crisis.
On Wall Street, stocks pushed Economists worry it will take higher as investors reckoned years to recover all the jobs lost. that the worst of the job losses The meltdown has occurred are over. The Dow Jones Industrial with startling speed. In February, Average gained more than unemployment was at a more 455 points, or close to 2%. than 50-year low of 3.5%, and the
Worldwide, the virus has infected economy had added jobs every at least 3.9 million people month for a record 9 ½ years. In and killed over 270,000, including March, unemployment was 4.4%. more than 76,000 in the “In just two months the unemployment U.S., according to a tally by Johns rate has gone from Hopkins University based on official the lowest rate in 50 years to the data. White House officials highest rate in almost 90 years,” announced that Vice President said Gus Faucher, chief economist Mike Pence’s press secretary has at PNC Financial. the coronavirus, the second person Nearly all the job growth at the complex known to test achieved during the 11-year recovery positive this week, and said safety from the financial meltdown protocols were being stepped up. has now been lost in one month.
The unemployment report indicated Leslie Calhoun lost his job that the vast majority of those cleaning Atlantic City, New Jersey, laid off in April — roughly 75% — casinos after 20 years. He, his wife, their two daughters and his sister-in-law are surviving on his wife’s paycheck from a medical facility as he wrestles with an unemployment system that has paid him nothing since he applied in March.
“The bills are piling up,” he said. “We’re eating a lot of ramen noodles and hot dogs. What I wouldn’t give for a nice meal of baked chicken and steak, some fresh vegetables.”
The last time unemployment was this high was in 1939 at the tail end of the Depression, before the U.S. entered World War II.
Trump,whofacestheprospectof high unemployment rates through the November election, said the figures were “no surprise” and later added that he’s in “no rush” to negotiateanotherfinancialrescuebill.
An emerging Democratic aid package is expected to include eye-popping sums, centered on nearly $1 trillion that states and cities are seeking to prevent mass layoffs as governments reel from the one-two punch of skyrocketing pandemic costs and dismal tax receipts in the shuttered economy.