WASHINGTON (AP) - The coronavirus crisis has sent U.S. unemployment surging to 14.7%, a level last seen when the country was in the throes of the Depression and President Franklin D. Roosevelt was assuring Americans that the only thing to fear was fear itself.
And because of government errors and the particular way the Labor Department measures the job market, the true picture is even worse. By some calculations, the unemployment rate stands at 23.6%, not far from the Depression peak of nearly 25%.
The Labor Department said Friday that 20.5 million jobs vanished in April in the worst monthly loss on record, triggered by the coast-to-coast shutdowns of factories, stores, offices and other businesses.
The breathtaking collapse is certain to intensify the push-pull across the U.S. over how and when to ease the stay-at-home restrictions. And it robs President Donald Trump of the ability to point to a strong economy as he runs for reelection.
"The jobs report from hell is here," said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, "one never seen before and unlikely to be seen again barring another pandemic or meteor hitting the Earth."
On Wall Street, stocks pushed higher as investors reckoned that the worst of the job losses are over. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained more than 455 points, or close to 2%.
A woman waits to receive food at a distribution site during the coronavirus pandemic, Friday, May 8, 2020, in Chelsea, Mass. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Worldwide, the virus has infected at least 3.9 million people and killed over 270,000, including more than 76,000 in the U.S., according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University based on official data.
The unemployment report indicated that the vast majority of those laid off in April - roughly 75% - consider their job loss temporary, a result of businesses that were forced to suddenly close but hope to reopen and recall their laid-off workers.
Whether most of those workers can return anytime soon, though, will be determined by how well policymakers, businesses and the public deal with the health crisis. Economists worry it will take years to recover all the jobs lost.
The meltdown has occurred with startling speed. In February, unemployment was at a more than 50-year low of 3.5%, and the economy had added jobs every month for a record 9 1/2 years. In March, unemployment was 4.4%.
"In just two months the unemployment rate has gone from the lowest rate in 50 years to the highest rate in almost 90 years," said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial.
Nearly all the job growth achieved during the 11-year recovery from the financial meltdown has now been lost in one month.
Leslie Calhoun lost his job cleaning Atlantic City, New Jersey, casinos after 20 years. He, his wife, their two daughters and his sister-in-law are surviving on his wife´s paycheck from a medical facility as he wrestles with an unemployment system that has paid him nothing since he applied in March.
"The bills are piling up," he said. "We´re eating a lot of ramen noodles and hot dogs. What I wouldn´t give for a nice meal of baked chicken and steak, some fresh vegetables."
The last time unemployment was this high was in 1939 at the tail end of the Depression, before the U.S. entered World War II.
Trump, who faces the prospect of high unemployment rates through the November elections, said the figures were "no surprise."
"What I can do is I´ll bring it back," he said. "Those jobs will all be back, and they´ll be back very soon. And next year we´ll have a phenomenal year."
However, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected that the jobless rate will still be 9.5% by the end of 2021.
As bad as Friday's numbers were, they don't capture the full magnitude of the devastation.
In a sort of footnote, the Labor Department acknowledged that its survey-takers erroneously classified millions of Americans as employed in April even though their employers had closed down. If they had been counted correctly, unemployment would have been nearly 20%, the government said.
However, the Labor Department doesn't change the results submitted by its survey-takers because that could be seen as political manipulation.
Also, people who are out of work but aren't actually looking for a new job are not officially counted as unemployed. An estimated 6.4 million people lost jobs last month but did not search for new ones, probably because they saw little prospect of finding work with the economy shut down.
Counting them as unemployed would push the rate up further, to almost 24%, according to calculations by Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
Though some businesses are beginning to reopen in certain states, factories, hotels, restaurants, resorts, sporting venues, movie theaters and download pkv bandarq many small businesses are still largely shuttered. The government is dispensing nearly $3 trillion to help households and businesses pull through, including $1,200-per-person relief checks and an extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits.
Trump has pushed aggressively to get businesses up and running again amid warnings from health experts that easing up too soon could lead to a deadly second wave of infections. As Election Day nears, the president will be judged on how he handles not just the economic crisis but the health one.
Just months ago, the Trump campaign planned to hammer its Democratic opponent this spring with negative ads while touting the strong economy. But since the outbreak, the re-election team has grown increasingly worried about the president´s standing in key states such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida. More than one-fifth of Michigan´s workers are on unemployment.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has seized on the crisis as part of his overall attempt to cast Trump as caring only about the wealthiest Americans.
The health scourge has taken such a heavy economic toll around the world that economists have had to break out the history books.
This week, the Bank of England projected that Britain will see its biggest annual economic decline since 1706, when the European powers were embroiled in the War of the Spanish Succession.
Unemployment in the 19-country eurozone is expected to surpass 10% in coming months as more people are laid off. That figure is expected to remain lower than the U.S. rate, in part because millions of workers in places such as France and Germany are staying on the payrolls with the help of government aid that covers a large portion of their salaries.
Over the past seven weeks, an estimated 33.5 million American workers have filed for unemployment benefits. Friday's job-loss report captures just five weeks, it is based on a mid-April survey of businesses and poker pkv households, and it is a net figure - that is, it takes into account the offsetting effects of the hiring surge at companies like Amazon and many grocery stores
Harvard economist Raj Chetty said the economy´s health will hinge on when the outbreak has subsided enough that most Americans feel comfortable returning to restaurants, bars, theaters and shops.
Minorities and poor people have suffered the most from the shutdown. Job losses were especially severe among Latinos, whose unemployment rate leaped to 18.9% from 6% in March. The African-American rate jumped to 16.7%, while for whites it rose to 14.2%.
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AP Writers Jonathan Lemire, Josh Boak and poker pkv Wayne Parry contributed to this story.
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Follow AP pandemic coverage at website and website
Euro Treasures Antiques owner Scott Evans stands in front of his business Friday, May 8, 2020, in Salt Lake City. Evans is closing his art and antique store after 40 years. With a drastic drop in customers due to COVID-19 concerns and shelter-in-place orders, Evans says it was no longer cost effective to stay open. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
In this Wednesday, May 6, 2020, photo, Brandon Earl, right, helps David Lenus, a job seeker, fill out an application at a drive up job fair for Allied Universal during the coronavirus pandemic, in Gardena, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
In this May 6, 2020 photo, a person sits near a boarded up and closed Arc'teryx outdoor clothing store in downtown Seattle. Nearly all retail stores and restaurants in the area are currently closed or operating under reduced levels of service due to the outbreak of the coronavirus and state-wide stay-at-home orders, which has led to thousands of workers losing their jobs or being furloughed. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Surf shop worker Francois wears a mask as he carries a surfboard as Bird's Surf Shed opens Friday, May 8, 2020, in San Diego. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday issued the broadest loosening of his stay-at-home order so far, allowing retailers and manufacturers to reopen with new safety measures and setting strict criteria. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
A woman sitting on a stoop reading a book in the sun is seen reflected by a closed clothing store's window on West Broadway, Thursday, May 7, 2020, in the SoHo neighborhood of the Manhattan borough in New York. The U.S. government is poised to report the worst set of job numbers since record-keeping began in 1948, a stunning snapshot of the toll the coronavirus has taken on a now-shattered economy. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
FILE - In this May 7, 2020, file photo, a pedestrian walks by The Framing Gallery, closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in Grosse Pointe, Mich. The U.S. unemployment rate hit 14.7% in April, the highest rate since the Great Depression, as 20.5 million jobs vanished in the worst monthly loss on record. The figures are stark evidence of the damage the coronavirus has done to a now-shattered economy. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
Carmen Cortez, left, gets help with her smart phone from Adrianna Bottoms, assistant manager of the AT&T store in Arden Fair Mall in Sacramento, Calif., Friday, May 8, 2020. The mall was closed Friday, but the store, which as been offering curbside service, was allowing customers to enter. Employees wore face masks, hand sanitizer and face masks were available for customers and social distancing guidelines were followed. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
In this May 6, 2020 photo, a sign that reads "Hiring Today!" is posted in the window of a agen domino 99's Pizza store open for delivery or pick-up only in downtown Seattle. The U.S. unemployment rate hit 14.7% in April, the highest rate since the Great Depression, as 20.5 million jobs vanished in the worst monthly loss on record. The figures are stark evidence of the damage the coronavirus has done to a now-shattered economy. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
People wear protective face masks to protect against and prevent the spread of the coronavirus as they enter a store Thursday, May 7, 2020, in Brentwood, Mo. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Hair stylist Brooke Swanson of Gilford, N.H., left, looks down at a jug of hand sanitizer while picking up a supply for her shop at the Flag Hill Distillery in Lee, N.H., Friday, May 8, 2020. Swanson expects to open and resume operations for her customers one at a time on Monday May 11th when some state restrictions for the COVID-19 virus outbreak are lifted. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Volunteers from a local restaurant chain bag fresh fruit and vegetables at Roadrunner Food Bank in Albuquerque, N.M., on Thursday, May 7, 2020, so it can be distributed to food pantries through the region as demand escalates. The number of New Mexicans applying for unemployment benefits for the week ending May 2 increased by nearly 40% from the previous week. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)
US unemployment surges to a Depression-era level of 14.7%
por Aimee Myles (22/10/2020)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The coronavirus crisis has sent U.S. unemployment surging to 14.7%, a level last seen when the country was in the throes of the Depression and President Franklin D. Roosevelt was assuring Americans that the only thing to fear was fear itself.And because of government errors and the particular way the Labor Department measures the job market, the true picture is even worse. By some calculations, the unemployment rate stands at 23.6%, not far from the Depression peak of nearly 25%.
The Labor Department said Friday that 20.5 million jobs vanished in April in the worst monthly loss on record, triggered by the coast-to-coast shutdowns of factories, stores, offices and other businesses.
The breathtaking collapse is certain to intensify the push-pull across the U.S. over how and when to ease the stay-at-home restrictions. And it robs President Donald Trump of the ability to point to a strong economy as he runs for reelection.
"The jobs report from hell is here," said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, "one never seen before and unlikely to be seen again barring another pandemic or meteor hitting the Earth."
On Wall Street, stocks pushed higher as investors reckoned that the worst of the job losses are over. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained more than 455 points, or close to 2%.
A woman waits to receive food at a distribution site during the coronavirus pandemic, Friday, May 8, 2020, in Chelsea, Mass. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Worldwide, the virus has infected at least 3.9 million people and killed over 270,000, including more than 76,000 in the U.S., according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University based on official data.
The unemployment report indicated that the vast majority of those laid off in April - roughly 75% - consider their job loss temporary, a result of businesses that were forced to suddenly close but hope to reopen and recall their laid-off workers.
Whether most of those workers can return anytime soon, though, will be determined by how well policymakers, businesses and the public deal with the health crisis. Economists worry it will take years to recover all the jobs lost.
The meltdown has occurred with startling speed. In February, unemployment was at a more than 50-year low of 3.5%, and the economy had added jobs every month for a record 9 1/2 years. In March, unemployment was 4.4%.
"In just two months the unemployment rate has gone from the lowest rate in 50 years to the highest rate in almost 90 years," said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial.
Nearly all the job growth achieved during the 11-year recovery from the financial meltdown has now been lost in one month.
Leslie Calhoun lost his job cleaning Atlantic City, New Jersey, casinos after 20 years. He, his wife, their two daughters and his sister-in-law are surviving on his wife´s paycheck from a medical facility as he wrestles with an unemployment system that has paid him nothing since he applied in March.
"The bills are piling up," he said. "We´re eating a lot of ramen noodles and hot dogs. What I wouldn´t give for a nice meal of baked chicken and steak, some fresh vegetables."
The last time unemployment was this high was in 1939 at the tail end of the Depression, before the U.S. entered World War II.
Trump, who faces the prospect of high unemployment rates through the November elections, said the figures were "no surprise."
"What I can do is I´ll bring it back," he said. "Those jobs will all be back, and they´ll be back very soon. And next year we´ll have a phenomenal year."
However, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected that the jobless rate will still be 9.5% by the end of 2021.
As bad as Friday's numbers were, they don't capture the full magnitude of the devastation.
In a sort of footnote, the Labor Department acknowledged that its survey-takers erroneously classified millions of Americans as employed in April even though their employers had closed down. If they had been counted correctly, unemployment would have been nearly 20%, the government said.
However, the Labor Department doesn't change the results submitted by its survey-takers because that could be seen as political manipulation.
Also, people who are out of work but aren't actually looking for a new job are not officially counted as unemployed. An estimated 6.4 million people lost jobs last month but did not search for new ones, probably because they saw little prospect of finding work with the economy shut down.
Counting them as unemployed would push the rate up further, to almost 24%, according to calculations by Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
Though some businesses are beginning to reopen in certain states, factories, hotels, restaurants, resorts, sporting venues, movie theaters and download pkv bandarq many small businesses are still largely shuttered. The government is dispensing nearly $3 trillion to help households and businesses pull through, including $1,200-per-person relief checks and an extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits.
Trump has pushed aggressively to get businesses up and running again amid warnings from health experts that easing up too soon could lead to a deadly second wave of infections. As Election Day nears, the president will be judged on how he handles not just the economic crisis but the health one.
Just months ago, the Trump campaign planned to hammer its Democratic opponent this spring with negative ads while touting the strong economy. But since the outbreak, the re-election team has grown increasingly worried about the president´s standing in key states such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida. More than one-fifth of Michigan´s workers are on unemployment.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has seized on the crisis as part of his overall attempt to cast Trump as caring only about the wealthiest Americans.
The health scourge has taken such a heavy economic toll around the world that economists have had to break out the history books.
This week, the Bank of England projected that Britain will see its biggest annual economic decline since 1706, when the European powers were embroiled in the War of the Spanish Succession.
Unemployment in the 19-country eurozone is expected to surpass 10% in coming months as more people are laid off. That figure is expected to remain lower than the U.S. rate, in part because millions of workers in places such as France and Germany are staying on the payrolls with the help of government aid that covers a large portion of their salaries.
Over the past seven weeks, an estimated 33.5 million American workers have filed for unemployment benefits. Friday's job-loss report captures just five weeks, it is based on a mid-April survey of businesses and poker pkv households, and it is a net figure - that is, it takes into account the offsetting effects of the hiring surge at companies like Amazon and many grocery stores
Harvard economist Raj Chetty said the economy´s health will hinge on when the outbreak has subsided enough that most Americans feel comfortable returning to restaurants, bars, theaters and shops.
Minorities and poor people have suffered the most from the shutdown. Job losses were especially severe among Latinos, whose unemployment rate leaped to 18.9% from 6% in March. The African-American rate jumped to 16.7%, while for whites it rose to 14.2%.
___
AP Writers Jonathan Lemire, Josh Boak and poker pkv Wayne Parry contributed to this story.
__
Follow AP pandemic coverage at website and website
Euro Treasures Antiques owner Scott Evans stands in front of his business Friday, May 8, 2020, in Salt Lake City. Evans is closing his art and antique store after 40 years. With a drastic drop in customers due to COVID-19 concerns and shelter-in-place orders, Evans says it was no longer cost effective to stay open. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
In this Wednesday, May 6, 2020, photo, Brandon Earl, right, helps David Lenus, a job seeker, fill out an application at a drive up job fair for Allied Universal during the coronavirus pandemic, in Gardena, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
In this May 6, 2020 photo, a person sits near a boarded up and closed Arc'teryx outdoor clothing store in downtown Seattle. Nearly all retail stores and restaurants in the area are currently closed or operating under reduced levels of service due to the outbreak of the coronavirus and state-wide stay-at-home orders, which has led to thousands of workers losing their jobs or being furloughed. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Surf shop worker Francois wears a mask as he carries a surfboard as Bird's Surf Shed opens Friday, May 8, 2020, in San Diego. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday issued the broadest loosening of his stay-at-home order so far, allowing retailers and manufacturers to reopen with new safety measures and setting strict criteria. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
A woman sitting on a stoop reading a book in the sun is seen reflected by a closed clothing store's window on West Broadway, Thursday, May 7, 2020, in the SoHo neighborhood of the Manhattan borough in New York. The U.S. government is poised to report the worst set of job numbers since record-keeping began in 1948, a stunning snapshot of the toll the coronavirus has taken on a now-shattered economy. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
FILE - In this May 7, 2020, file photo, a pedestrian walks by The Framing Gallery, closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in Grosse Pointe, Mich. The U.S. unemployment rate hit 14.7% in April, the highest rate since the Great Depression, as 20.5 million jobs vanished in the worst monthly loss on record. The figures are stark evidence of the damage the coronavirus has done to a now-shattered economy. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
Carmen Cortez, left, gets help with her smart phone from Adrianna Bottoms, assistant manager of the AT&T store in Arden Fair Mall in Sacramento, Calif., Friday, May 8, 2020. The mall was closed Friday, but the store, which as been offering curbside service, was allowing customers to enter. Employees wore face masks, hand sanitizer and face masks were available for customers and social distancing guidelines were followed. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
In this May 6, 2020 photo, a sign that reads "Hiring Today!" is posted in the window of a agen domino 99's Pizza store open for delivery or pick-up only in downtown Seattle. The U.S. unemployment rate hit 14.7% in April, the highest rate since the Great Depression, as 20.5 million jobs vanished in the worst monthly loss on record. The figures are stark evidence of the damage the coronavirus has done to a now-shattered economy. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
People wear protective face masks to protect against and prevent the spread of the coronavirus as they enter a store Thursday, May 7, 2020, in Brentwood, Mo. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Hair stylist Brooke Swanson of Gilford, N.H., left, looks down at a jug of hand sanitizer while picking up a supply for her shop at the Flag Hill Distillery in Lee, N.H., Friday, May 8, 2020. Swanson expects to open and resume operations for her customers one at a time on Monday May 11th when some state restrictions for the COVID-19 virus outbreak are lifted. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Volunteers from a local restaurant chain bag fresh fruit and vegetables at Roadrunner Food Bank in Albuquerque, N.M., on Thursday, May 7, 2020, so it can be distributed to food pantries through the region as demand escalates. The number of New Mexicans applying for unemployment benefits for the week ending May 2 increased by nearly 40% from the previous week. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)