WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th May, 2020) The United States lost more than 20 million jobs last month, boosting the unemployment rate to nearly 15 percent, in a pandemic-induced economic spiral that the Trump administration believes could soon get even worse.
On Friday, the US Labor Department in its monthly jobs report showed the US unemployment rate had jumped from 10.3 percent to 14.7% as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
"Total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 20.5 million in April," the report said. "The changes in these measures reflect the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it."
The unemployment rate of 14.7 percent represented the largest over-the-month increase since 1948 and the highest rate since the Great Depression.
In March, the US lost 710,000 jobs due to social-distancing measures that began keeping at least 80 percent of the 310 million-strong population at home.
The new report comes a week after the Commerce Department said the US economy shrank 4.8 percent in the first three months of 2020 - the sharpest economic decline since the Great Recession of 2008/09.
Every major sector of the labor market had job losses, the report said, with particularly heavy declines in the non-essential leisure and hospitality industries.
Almost three quarters of the decrease occurred in food services and drinking places, followed by arts, entertainment, recreation and accommodation, the Labor Department said.
Health care and education industries took a big hit as well. In health care, employment declined by 1.4 million, led by losses in offices of dentists, physicians and other health care practitioners who were not providing critical life-saving procedures.
Employment declined by 651,000 in social assistance services, reflecting losses in child day care services, individual and family services. Employment in private education declined by 457,000 over the month.
In terms of demographics, the job numbers reflected that communities of color absorbed the biggest blow.
"The April report also shows that the African American unemployment rate rose 10.0 percentage points to 16.7 percent, and that the Hispanic American unemployment rate rose 12.9 percentage points to 18.9 percent," the White House said in a statement.
The White House said the unemployment rate for those without a high school diploma rose 14.4 percentage points to 21.2 percent in April. Those with only a high-school degree saw a 12.9 percentage point rise to 17.3 percent.
The Labor Department also reported 33 million filings for first-time unemployment benefits by Americans over the past seven weeks, indicating more job losses to come.
After the new job numbers were released, White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow said he was not sure this is as bad as it will get.
"I don't think this pandemic contraction has yet fully run its course ... You're really going to transition into a reopening of the economy, so who's to say the numbers will not get worse," Kudlow told FOX news.
Meanwhile, both White House and private economists have predicted that the current quarter between April and June would be worse, saying the now mostly reopened economy was not expected to show much recovery until the third quarter.
Josh Lipsky, an analyst with the Atlantic Council, assessed the magnitude of the current economic collapse.
"The American people are having their livelihoods ripped out from under them at a scale not seen since the Great Depression," Lipsky told Forbes on Friday. "Today's jobs report shows that shutting down the US economy will create deep and long-lasting scars for America's labor force. It is clear there will be no V-shaped bounce back from the depths of this shock."
The US government has already earmarked about $3 trillion in COVID-19 relief in previous packages, including more than $2.1 trillion in the initial Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) act. Yet lawmakers are pointing to the new jobs numbers as evidence more is needed.
"Our nation is in the midst of an historic health and economic crisis, and even this record-shattering April jobs report understates the suffering in our nation today. The dire job losses show the urgent need for a bold CARES 2 package that is equal to the crisis gripping the American people," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement on Friday.
Pelosi said the new package must provide strong support to state, local and tribal governments who desperately need funds to pay the health care workers, police, fire, transportation, emergency medical services, teachers and other "vital workers" who keep the United States safe and are in danger of losing their jobs.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters on Friday that the Trump administration wants Congress to reconvene soon to come up with another phase of relief funding.
Trump has repeatedly said that he wants to see the national infrastructure rebuilding program and the payroll tax cut incorporated in the next relief package.
The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives - unlike the Republican-led Senate -continues its recess induced by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Trump, meanwhile, later in the day said the brutal jobs report is not his fault while Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden blasted the president for favoring big businesses and investors.
