The numbers: The coronavirus pandemic destroyed a massive 20.5 million jobs in April, driving the unemployment rate to a post-World War II high of 14.7 percent as the United States faced its biggest economic crisis in almost a century.
The devastating trail of job losses was heaviest at restaurants, retailers and hotels, but every major industry suffered. The health-care sector even lost 1.4 million jobs amid the worst health crisis in American history, according to government figures released Friday morning.
The unemployment rate leaped to double digits from a 50-year low of just 3.5 percent two months ago, but the share of idled workers is much higher. If millions of Americans who’ve been furloughed and expect to return to their jobs are counted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the jobless rate would have been almost 5 percentage points higher at nearly 20 percent.
This story by Jeffry Bartash originally appeared in Market Watch.
A broader measure of unemployment that includes discouraged jobseekers and other people on the fringes of the labor market skyrocketed to a record 22.8 percent in April, painting an even grimmer picture.
In seven weeks since the virus shut down much of the U.S. economy, more than 33 million people have applied for unemployment benefits. The numbers are still growing by several million a week. Just last week, another 3.2 million Americans filed initial jobless claims, according to the Labor Department.