The unemployment rate in the United States came in at 14.7% in the month of April. This is one of the highest levels of unemployment in history! How can this be happening when just a short time ago we had the greatest economy in our history!
Over 20 million jobs were lost in just the month of April due to the COVID-19 shutdown. This is truly bizarre to realize this can happen in such a short period of time. The United States has faced peril many times in its history but this has to be the quickest economic downturn ever.
The paralyzed U.S. economy, and the tidal wave of layoffs, pushed the unemployment rate — which sat at a half-century low of 3.5 percent in February — to the highest level since record-keeping began in 1948. The previous record was 10.8 percent in late 1982. The number of job losses is also the biggest on record dating back to 1939. Previously, the largest one-month job loss number was 1.96 million in September 1945, at the end of World War II.
A more inclusive measure of what’s called underemployment, which counts those not looking for work and individuals who are reduced to part-time hours for economic reasons, hit an all-time high of 22.8 percent.
As expected, the leisure and hospitality sector bore the biggest brunt of job losses, shedding more than 7.6 million jobs in April alone, 5.5 million that stemmed from eating and drinking establishments.
We are fortunate having a businessman as President and he sees the necessity of reopening the economy as quickly as possible. Who knows if China unleashed this virus on the world on purpose or not but they could not have done more damage to our country with a shooting war.
We must open the country back up now! Was it even the right choice to shut it down in the first place???
Employment Devastation
20.5 million jobs losses in April. Stock market up big.
It’s not counterintuitive.14.7% unemployment underscores wheels of commerce must move again.
Costs of staying completely shutdown includes death, despair, hopelessness & individual independence. pic.twitter.com/tv57QGUeQ7
— Charles V Payne (@cvpayne) May 8, 2020
Do you think China did this on purpose? Comment below and let us hear your thoughts!
RF
Featured image via public domain. Interesting side note. The caption on this public domain photo says this ‘soup kitchen’ was opened by Al Capone.
