Only two months ago, the U.S unemployment rate was at a 50-year low of 3,5 percent and the U.S economy was great with a growth much higher than the rest of the world. But now, everything have changed. It`s all turned upside down.
The U.S unemployment rate jumped to 14,7 percent in April 2020 and that is the highest unemployment rate in the U.S history. This is terrible. This is ugly and the worst we have seen as the Coronavirus pushed millions out of work.
The number of unemployed persons rose by 15,9 million to 23,1 million in April. The labor force participation rate decreased by 2,5 percentage points over the month to 60,2 percent which is the lowest rate since January 1973.
The U.S economy is likely to shed a record 22 million jobs in April, which would be the biggest drop in payrolls since the Great depression!
The coronavirus pandemic ended an historic 113 straight months of employment growth. It was the first decline in payrolls since September of 2010 but the figures were not as bad as those seen in 2008 as the number excluded the last two weeks of March when unemployment claims surged by nearly 10 million. About two-thirds of job loses occured in leisure and hospitality, mainly in food services and drinking places.
It took over ten years to push down the unemployment rate from about 10 to just 3,5 percent, but it took only weeks to push it back to a record 14,7 percent.
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