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US Jobless Claims Soar as Coronavirus Shuts Businesses

Ken Bredemeier

   WASHINGTON - Claims for unemployment compensation surged in the U.S.
   last week as the economic impact of the deadly coronavirus takes hold.

   The U.S. Labor Department said Thursday that 281,000 workers made new
   jobless benefit claims, up 70,000 from the week before. The new figure
   was the highest in two and a half years.

   Economists are predicting that more than a million U.S. workers could
   lose their jobs by the end of March.

   Hourly wage workers in retail stores, at hotels and in restaurants are
   expected to be particularly vulnerable to the coming layoffs linked to
   voluntary business shutdowns or those ordered by state and local
   governments to try to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

   Individual states are reporting huge increases in claims for
   unemployment insurance benefits, which typically only provide a stopgap
   sum of money for the jobless, not anywhere near what workers might have
   otherwise been paid from regular employment.

   Virginia on the U.S. Atlantic coast saw a 33-fold increase in jobless
   benefit claims this week, while Pennsylvania in the eastern U.S. and
   Colorado in the West reported 20 times the normal number of claims.

   Many governments -- federal, state and local -- and businesses have
   closed their offices and ordered their employees to work from home.

   With that, U.S. consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of the
   world's biggest economy, is inevitably going to dip as people worry
   about contact with strangers who may unknowingly have contracted the
   coronavirus.

   Meanwhile, key stock indexes fell again in New York as trading opened
   Thursday, down another 1% after massive losses on Wednesday virtually
   erased the last gains that had accrued since President Donald Trump
   assumed office in January 2017.

   Asian markets dropped a percentage point or two on Thursday, while
   European indexes were down by similar amounts in afternoon trading.

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