The U.S. unemployment rate likely shot up to almost 20% in May, a new post World War Two record, with millions more losing their jobs
FILE PHOTO - A man speaks with a library worker after receiving an unemployment form, as the outbreak of coronavirus disease continues, in Miami Beach, Florida, U.S., April 8, 2020. REUTERS/Marco Bello
Consumer confidence, manufacturing and services industries are also stabilizing, though at low levels, hopeful signs that the worst was over. That would bring total job losses to 29.4 million since March, when U.S. states began to shut down non-essential businesses to rein in the coronavirus. That would be more than three times the jobs lost during the 2007-09 Great Recession, and it took six years recoup the jobs lost during that downturn.
Without the misclassification, the April rate would have been closer to 19%. Some economists expect the BLS addressed this problem in May, which could account for estimates for May’s unemployment rate in the Reuters survey being as high as 27%. The jobless rate neared 25% during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
“If we see temporary layoffs go down as more see those job losses permanent, that means their confidence in the economy six months from now is going to be a lot less and that’s going to reduce spending plans.”
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