Unemployment rate in US hit badly due to COVID-19.
                     Unemployment rate in US hit 
badly due to COVID-19
Worst since decades
Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the unemployment 
rate in the United States jumped from 10.3 per 
cent to 14.7 per cent in the month of April, in 
the largest over-the-month increase since 1948.
Source: Google Images
Even worse than Great 
Depression
The unemployment rate of 14.7 per cent is the 
highest seen since the Great Depression. In a 
pandemic-induced economic spiral, the US lost 
over 20 million jobs in April. This took its 
unemployment rate to nearly 15 per cent.
Source: Google Images
U.S economy sinks
The new report comes a week after the 
Commerce Department said the US economy 
shrank 4.8 per cent in the first three months of 
2020. USA became the world’s no. 1 worst-hit 
country due to coronavirus.
Source: Google Images
Heavy declines
A newly released report adds that every major 
sector of the labour market had job losses, with 
particularly heavy declines in the non-essential 
leisure and hospitality industries. Total nonfarm 
payroll employment fell by 20.5 million in April
Source: Google Images
Social distancing
In March, the US lost 710,000 jobs due to 
social-distancing measures that began keeping 
at least 80 per cent of the 310 million-strong 
population at home. There is no other way to 
reduce the transmission of the rapidly 
spreading disease.
Source: Google Images
What is U.S Govt. doing?
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. The US government has 
already announced about $3 trillion in Covid-19 
relief in previous packages
Source: Google Images
What it suggests?
All of which suggests that unemployment is 
going to stay high for some time. The chances of 
the jobless rate being below 10% by the time 
Donald Trump stands for re-election in November 
look remote.
Source: Google Images
Risks of unemployment
Unemployment makes people miserable. There 
has been plenty of speculation in the past couple 
of months about whether the lockdown has been 
good for levels of wellbeing, but the survey 
evidence and the economic literature suggests it 
has not.
Source: Google Images
What should be the priority?
A priority, therefore, is to prevent temporary 
layoffs becoming permanent, because that is the 
path to more poverty, more ill-health, more 
crime, more relationship breakups and more 
social alienation.
Source: Google Images