Record 16.8m in US seek unemployment benefits

A total of 6.6 million people sought jobless benefits in the US last week, meaning more than one in 10 workers have lost their jobs in the past three weeks to the coronavirus outbreak.

The figures constitute the largest and fastest string of job losses in US records dating to 1948. They paint a bleak picture of a job market that is quickly unravelling as businesses have shut down across the country. More than 20 million additional Americans may lose jobs this month.

The outbreak is believed to have erased nearly a third of the economy’s output in the current quarter. Fortyeight states have closed non-essential businesses. Restaurants, hotels, department stores and countless small businesses have laid off millions as they struggle to pay bills at a time when their revenue has vanished.

In the past three weeks, 16.8 million Americans have filed for unemployment aid. The surge of claims has overwhelmed unemployment offices around the country, and more job cuts are expected.

The unemployment rate could hit 15% when the April employment report is released early next month.

A nation of normally free-spending shoppers and travellers is mainly hunkered down at home, bringing entire gears of the economy to a near-halt.

Non-grocery retail business plunged 97% in the last week of March compared with a year earlier, according to Morgan Stanley. The number of airline passengers screened by the Transportation Security Administration has plunged 95% from with a year ago, and US hotel revenue has tumbled 80%.

The government-mandated business shutdowns that are meant to defeat the virus have brought the US to a sudden and violent standstill and economists are struggling to assess the duration and severity of the damage.

The Penn Wharton Budget Model, created at the University of Pennsylvania’s business school, projects that the US economy will shrink at an astonishing 30% annual rate in the AprilJune quarter – even including the government’s new 2.2 trillion dollar relief measure, the largest federal aid package in history by far.