The longest economic expansion on record, a 113-month streak that netted 22 million jobs between October 2010 and February 2020, is over. The economy shed 701,000 jobs in March and the number of unemployed persons grew by 1.4 million in the first indications of the coronavirus emergency on the economy, with far worse expected in months ahead. The numbers the Labor Department released this morning are based on surveys that reflect only a few days of the virus’ effects on employers in March.
Job losses to be reported next month are expected to be in the millions, with initial unemployment claims just in the last two weeks reaching 10 million–before stay-in-place orders spread to most of the nation, including Florida. The March job loss was not far from the worst monthly job losses of the Great Recession, when the worst month recorded a loss of 800,000 jobs, in March 2009.
The unemployment rate had bottomed out at 3.5 percent. It rose to 4.4 percent in March, the largest month-over-the-month spike since January 1975, when it also rose 0.9 percent. The steepest month-over-month increase since World War II was in October 1949, when the unemployment rate rose from 6.6 percent to 7.9 percent. The spike was short-lived: the rate fell quickly after that, falling to historic lows.
The largest lost in March, of 459,000 jobs, was in leisure and hospitality–restaurants, bars and tourism-related businesses. The loss offset almost equal gains in the industry going back 24 months. Education and health services lost 76,000 jobs, with even health care jobs dropping by 43,000, including 17,000 in dentists’ offices and 12,000 in physicians’ offices. Professional and business services saw a loss of 52,000, retail lost 46,000 jobs, construction lost 29,000, and manufacturing, which had been a weak sector for a long time, lost another 18,000 jobs. There was one bright spot: federal government employment rose 18,000, reflecting the addition of census workers.
The losses are severe in states like Florida, where employment is heavily dependent on services and hospitality.
“Everything was shut down literally overnight,” Florida House Rep. Paul Renner, who represents Flagler County, said this morning on WNZF. “There’s a lot we don’t know yet because these things are lagging.” He suggested that the Legislature may have to “come back and make adjustments to the budget” if the federal stimulus packages don’t fill the holes sufficiently.
Michael Gapen, chief U.S. economist at Barclays, told The New York Times the unemployment rate could rise to 13 percent when April numbers are tabulated. “What is so startling is how quickly things are deteriorating,” he told the paper. “As bad as this report is, next month will be many orders of magnitude worse. This is the initial slippage of the labor market.”
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James says
Contact state senator Travis Hutson,express your dismay at the draconian business closures and the failure of the unemployment system.
The C C P and Federal,State and Local government have caused the business crippling,and the mitigation has proven to be inoperable.
Email,call,text the government officials.Travis Hutson is our state senator make him earn his constituents support.
mausborn says
Clueless voters, blatant nepotism and the ignorant enabling republicans brought us where we are today. We are now, unfortunately, on our own in fighting the coronavirus which three weeks ago was deemed by the president and his allies a hoax and a plot to hurt Trump’s presidency. We’ll have to listen to the health experts and practice social distancing and hope that the people on the other side of the aisle will wake up before it’s too late.
I think it’s time for the producers of “Trump: The President” to step in and pull the plug. It’s obvious that this television show has run off the rails in this third season and now people are actually dying in the episode entitled “Pandemic.” I am not sure what the producers can do to right the show but it’s clear that the contestant “Trump” has lost control and needs to be booted off the show. I would like to see the show cancelled and go back to having a non-reality show presidency but this is up to the voters on November 3.
Random says
Settle in for another 4 years, Biden’s gonna lose to the orange clown.
JJ says
Trump is a lifelong failure. Family, business, emotional failure. He is broke, and survives from high interest loan to high interest loan. Most of the properties with his name are owned by his creditors. His only success has been television, designed to deceive, which is his strength. If you believe ANYTHING he says, you are now culpable to the demise of our country. ADMIT you made a mistake and move forward to the recovery. Hillary and Obama did not make him evil… his father and himself did. Yours Truly, 100% Independent
Gary R says
Joe Biden: I remember fighting the Coronavirus back in Nam, the Germans hit us with a double latte and Mary had a little lamb!
mark101 says
Of course we have job loses, and we would under any administration that was presented with the coronavirus emergency, unless the author of this article wishes all the workers just stayed on their jobs.,
snapperhead says
Look at the what South Korea and several other Asian countries did. Their economies and deaths per capita are nowhere near the disaster ours is going to be because they started testing vigorously much sooner than Murica.
“The US and South Korea got coronavirus on the same day, but only America’s economy has been destroyed. This is why”
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/coronavirus-us-south-korea-economy-when-cases-map-a9444096.html
Willy Boy says
Many have been calling for wealth re-distribution, and Voila. Problem is the government seems incapable of passing out free money. They couldn’t sell ice water in Hades.