The number of workers claiming new unemployment benefits increased by 5.2 million last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday, as the coronavirus has led to nearly enough layoffs in the past month as the total number of job gains in the economic recovery that lasted from 2009 to 2020.
Forecasters had expected that 5.46 million jobs would be lost in the week ending Saturday.
Over 21 million people have lost their job in the last four weeks, the jobless claims numbers show.
“That means over the past month, at least 13.25% of employed workers lost their jobs,” said Nick Bunker, a director of economic research at Indeed.com. “Whether these workers will be recalled to their former jobs or get hired at new ones is a matter of when the public feels safe returning to a semblance of normalcy. Only then can businesses start to ramp up hiring, and the number of jobless workers can start to fall.”
Over 11 million workers now receive unemployment benefits, which is a record high, according to the Labor Department. The pace of job loss is stunning, said Alfredo Ortiz, president and CEO of the Job Creators Network.
“We are losing 33,000 jobs every hour of every day,” he said.
The current unemployment rate is 16% based upon the recent number of jobs lost, according to Ernie Tedeschi, a former economist for the Treasury Department.
The number of lost jobs over the past month is nearly equal to the 21.5 million net jobs that were created between the end of the Great Recession in June 2009 and the end of February 2020, according to the Labor Department.
In the past, the largest number of workers claiming unemployment benefits over a four-week period was 2.7 million in 1982.
Historic losses in the current job market come as President Trump has promised to unveil guidelines on Thursday to reopen the country’s shuttered economy that could prompt hiring. Trump is due to speak to governors later on Thursday and said he would be making an announcement in the afternoon.
