Historic collapse: Coronavirus wipes out 20.5m US jobs in April

WASHINGTON (AFP): The coronavirus lockdown wiped out 20.5 million US jobs in April, destroying nearly all the positions created in the previous decade.

The US Labour Department in its monthly report stated that the unprecedented collapse drove the unemployment rate to 14.7 percent as compared to 4.4 percent in March.

According to the report, the United States lost 8.6 million jobs and the unemployment rate peaked at 10% in October 2009. During the recovery, from February 2010 to February 2020, 23 million positions were created.

Referring to the statistics, the report informed that the plunge in nonfarm payroll employment last month was the largest ever recorded dating back to 1939.

The job losses in March were worse than initially reported, falling 870,000 even though the business closures happened mostly in the second half of the month.

According to the report, employment fell sharply in all major industry sectors. Leisure and hospitality was the first sector hit and posted a loss of 7.7 million jobs.

However, the report stated that some workers were misclassified in the report as employed. “If they had been listed properly, the unemployment rate would have been nearly five percentage points higher,” the report added.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump downplayed unprecedented US job losses and said, “It’s fully expected, there’s no surprise.”

The United States remains the worst affected country from the coronavirus pandemic, with more than 75,000 fatalities and 1.2 million cases, according to US Johns Hopkins University.