▶ Editorial: Jobless numbers must spur new action.

Officially, Connecticut has yet to recover fully from the Great Recession. The number of private-sector jobs in the state just in the past year surpassed prerecession totals, but the public sector, which includes jobs at the two casinos in the state’s southeastern corner, held back the overall totals.

Don’t look for that official recovery to arrive anytime soon. Numbers released in recent days verify that the coronavirus pandemic has hit the state labor market like an explosion, with jobless figures unprecedented in decades. Though the official unemployment rate stands at 7.9 percent, the effective rate is closer to 17.5 percent, state Labor Commissioner Kurt Westby said. The jobless rate stood at just 3.7 percent in March.

These are levels of economic pain that many people alive today have never experienced. Connecticut lost 288,000 jobs in March and April, more than doubling the 120,000 positions shed in the Great Recession. Connecticut is hardly alone. Federal officials reported last week the nation had lost 20.5 million jobs in April as the U.S. unemployment rate climbed to 14.7 percent.

The economic impact is immense. Even with federal and state assistance programs, people who have lost jobs are already being stretched thin, and the effect is felt across the economy. When one person can’t pay bills, it affects someone else’s income on the other end. Already Washington is fighting about the size and scope of future relief packages, as though a temporary fix were sufficient and the rest would take care of itself. It isn’t working out that way.

Beyond the bare numbers is the psychological impact. People’s identities are often closely tied to their work, and a sudden loss of employment, even at a time when many others are out of the office due to social-distancing requirements, can be deeply felt. People need income, but they also need some empathy for being caught in a crisis that is beyond their control and losing every shred of normalcy along the way.

The good news is that Connecticut has started reopening businesses, though Phase 1 shows that even with governmental approval the reopening will be a painstaking process. Many people don’t feel safe returning to their old habits, and understandably so. The coronavirus has not been beaten, despite encouraging signs on hospitalizations and new cases.

Phase 2 and beyond are likely to follow similar paths, which will be difficult on businesses that are counting on new and returning customers to keep them afloat and allow them to rehire employees let go when the pandemic hit.

Much as we’d like to believe otherwise, the chances of a quick economic turnaround, the socalled “V-shaped” recovery, could be slim. It could be months or years before businesses can support previous levels of employment.

That means help from all levels of government remains vital. Difficult as it may be to imagine, lawmakers must work together across the aisle to ensure aid continues for business and for people who have lost their jobs or had their hours reduced. The pain from 17 percent unemployment is not going to go away on its own.

The economic impact is immense. Even with federal and state assistance programs, people who have lost jobs are already being stretched thin, and the effect is felt across the economy.