In a month, coronavirus wipes out the 22 million jobs gained since the Great Recession
It took the coronavirus pandemic a matter of weeks to wipe out a decade’s worth of new jobs.
About 26 million Americans have filed unemployment claims between the week ending March 21 and the week ending April 18, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor. About 4.4 million new claims were filed just last week.
That’s the entirety, and then some, of the 22 million jobs CNBC reports were created since the U.S. started to bounce back from the Great Recession of 2007-2009.
The U.S. had been experiencing a historic economic boom since late 2010, but it came to a screeching halt in February.
Millions of Americans have been left jobless as many businesses across the country lay off or furlough workers in response to measures in place to slow the spread of COVID-19.
The number of new jobless claims has started to taper off in recent weeks. About 6.9 million new claims were filed during the week ending March 28. The following week new claims dropped slightly to 6.6 million, then to 5.2 million and 4.4. million in the subsequent weeks, data show.
About 16% of America’s workforce has filed for unemployment benefits, surging above the 10% jobless rate Reuters reports the country experienced during the Great Recession.
Today’s level of job losses hasn’t been seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s, The Washington Post reports.
And despite the fact new unemployment claims have decreased for three weeks now, the numbers are still striking, especially in comparison.
During the week of April 11 last year, 203,000 people applied for unemployment benefits, data show. That compares to 5.2 million the same week this year. That’s an increase of 2,462%.
But some experts are hopeful the worst of job losses is behind us.
“While layoffs and furloughs are likely to continue across a number of industries in coming weeks, we are cautiously optimistic that the peak in layoffs following initial widespread closures has occurred,” Andrew Hollenhorst, an economist at Citigroup in New York, told Reuters.
Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group, told CNBC he’s hopeful the “dizzying pace” of jobless claims will slow down as businesses start to reopen and restrictions are eased.
“As the economy begins to reopen in May, whether the local shop or the factories that are lining up to do so in coming weeks, we’re likely seeing the peak in claims as people get back to work,” he told the news outlet. “Again, the pace at which they will is the question.”
