APRIL 6, 2020 – UNEMPLOYMENT SOARS
6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance last week, bringing the total to 10 million filings over the past two weeks in record-shattering job losses. Before the coronavirus shut down much of the economy, the highest week for claims was 695,000 in 1982. The high during the last recession was 665,000 in March 2009.
The chief economist at Moody’s Analytics said, “My sense is that when we get April data a month from now, we’ll see that the economy lost somewhere between 10 and 15 million jobs.”
March employment numbers were released, but with the time lag, are not reflective of the current situation. There have been job losses and the unemployment rate has skyrocketed.
We can only hope the worst will soon be over, and people can start slowly moving back to their jobs.