WASHINGTON, April 23 — A record 26 million Americans likely sought unemployment benefits over the last five weeks, confirming that all the jobs created during the longest employment boom in US history were wiped out in about a month as the novel coronavirus savages the economy. Tomorrow’s...
Thursday, 23 Apr 2020 12:20 PM MYT
Tomorrow’s weekly jobless claims report from the Labour Department will add to a growing pile of increasingly bleak economic data. It will come amid rising protests against nationwide lockdowns to control the spread of Covid-19, the potentially lethal respiratory illness caused by the virus. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits probably totalled 4.2 million in the week ended April 18, according to a Reuters survey of economists. Still a figure that would have been seen as unimaginably high less than two months ago, it would be lower than the previous week’s 5.245 million. Estimates in the survey for today’s data were as high as 5.50 million.
“It wipes out all the job gains during the long expansion,” said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM in New York. “Once the economy begins to reopen initial claims will slow, but we have to be honest, not everyone is going to get their jobs back.”The labour market slaughter adds to collapsing oil prices, retail sales, manufacturing production, homebuilding and home sales in reinforcing economists’ contention that the economy entered recession in March.
“Claims that have been backlogged due to capacity issues should continue to be processed, with initial claims dropping to more normal, but still elevated levels,” said Andrew Hollenhorst, an economist at Citigroup in New York. “While layoffs and furloughs are likely to continue across a number of industries in coming weeks, we are cautiously optimistic that the peak in layoffs following initial widespread closures has occurred.
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