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More than 6. 6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, a record, as political and public health leaders froze the economy, keeping others at home and seeking to slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
The past two weeks have wiped out nearly every single task created over the last five years, a sign of the speed, depth, and pain of the economic shutdown for many American families struggling to pay renters insurance rates. and health in the midst of a pandemic.
Job losses have skyrocketed as restaurants, hotels, gyms have closed across the country, but layoffs are also expanding in manufacturing, warehousing and transportation, underscoring how widespread the pain of the coronavirus recession is.
Knowledge shows that we have discovered a new normal. In other words, we have hit rock bottom.
In March, more than 10 million Americans lost their jobs and applied for government assistance, according to the most recent data from the Labor Department, which includes claims filed through March 28. Many economists say the actual number of unemployed people is likely to be even higher, since many newly unemployed Americans have yet to come out to fill out an application.
The EE. UU. no government has released an official unemployment rate, but economists say it has most likely risen to 10 percent, a large and sudden peak that began in February, when the country’s unemployment rate was 3. 5 percent.
The severity of task losses is staggering. During the Great Recession, the U. S. unemployment rate reached 10% for one month in October 2010.
“We’ve never noticed anything like this,” said Aaron Sojourner, a working economist at the University of Minnesota. “The magnitude of job losses in the last two weeks is comparable to what we saw in two years of the Great Recession. “
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Economist Heidi Shierholz has spent her life reading the job market and said she trembled when she saw the “terrifying” amount of job losses in March. That’s their “best-case scenario” if Congress makes some other big stimulus package to the economy.
Many newly unemployed said they couldn’t apply for unemployment benefits because phone lines were so crowded they may simply be able to get through.
Self-employed staff and freelancers, such as barbers and hairdressers, were also ineligible to apply until last March, after Congress approved the $2. 2 trillion relief bill to expand those eligible for assistance. These staff are just beginning to fill out applications.
More Americans are likely to lose their jobs in the coming weeks, as corporations looking to keep their staff are forced to let them pass or reduce their hours to next to nothing.
Major retail chains, plus Macy’s, Kohl’s and J. C. Penney announced this week that they will lay off thousands of employees, keep their health insurance but not get paid because their hours are reduced to zero. These staff are also eligible for unemployment assistance, however, many realize that they can apply for it.
But the pain is spreading beyond department stores and restaurants. Mercedes Addington lost her job March 23 at a company that sells portions and materials for trucks in Kansas City, Kan. Although the company even considered itself “essential”, the crisis and orders continued to pour in, the company laid off the maximum of its employees.
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Addington on the phone with a visitor giving an order when he saw everyone around him packing their things. He briefly silenced the phone and asked what was going on and a colleague told him that everyone had been fired.
“I’m very frustrated and scared. I have expenses to pay soon and I count on that cash to get by,” Addington said. I still have a house to go back to. “
Addington, 21, lives in a modest apartment with her boyfriend. They pay $800 a month in rent. The landlord is willing to give them a break on April rent, but only if they can discover that Addington had applied for unemployment assistance from the state of Kansas.
She tried to apply for unemployment assistance without delay after being fired, but the formula told her she couldn’t complete the application until March 28. She did and a screen appeared saying she had been approved for about $300 a week in aid. But when she reconnected this week, he said her benefits had been “temporarily suspended,” leaving her in limbo over hiring and other bills.
Repeated calls to the Kansas unemployment department went unanswered. He doesn’t know what to do anymore.
“I’ve never implemented for unemployment before and I’m very beaten and confused,” she said.
Congress approved more assistance for the unemployed that aims to rack up weekly checks through about $600 per week, a primary accrual in the earnings of laid-off staff like Addington. But many states are struggling to implement the adjustments temporarily enough. , and state unemployment offices are understaffed to handle this volume of programs and questions.
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There are developing considerations that staff who lose their jobs due to the coronavirus will not be able to return to their jobs even after the fitness crisis ends. The longer staff are absent from their jobs, the more they will lose this link with their former bosses. and companies.
Countries like Denmark have chosen to pay all staff to stay in their jobs, even if they are at home. But the U. S. The U. S. has largely left it up to companies to do. they leave as Macy’s did, because at least they retain their profits and some attachment to the company.
“Don’t fire your employees, put them on leave,” Shierholz said. “The employee will still get benefits. You won’t lose your jobs. And corporations won’t lose their employees. “
There is a developing consensus among economists that the economy will recover smoothly from this recession given its magnitude and generalization.
Eric Rosengren, head of the Boston Federal Reserve since 2007, predicts a slower recovery because it will take other people longer to get comfortable going to baseball games and restaurants again.
“The public health aspects of this have not gone as well as in other countries, so the infection rate and death rate are likely to be relatively high in the United States. It also means the economic impact will likely be more severe than elsewhere,” Rosengren said.
He suggested Congress create more incentives to make coronavirus treatment free.
Andrew Van Dam and Alyssa Fowers contributed to this report.