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US Jobless Rate Spikes to 14.7%, Highest Since Great Depression

Ken Bredemeier

   WASHINGTON - The U.S Labor Department said Friday the
   coronavirus-caused unemployment rate surged to 14.7% in April, a depth
   of turmoil in the world's biggest economy not seen since the Great
   Depression in the 1930s. The jobless rate in March was 4.4%.

   As the rate suggests, about one of every six workers in the U.S. labor
   force of 164.6 million people is currently unemployed, with the
   coronavirus pandemic forcing factories with thousands of workers to
   shut their operations, small mom-and-pop-owned shops (small,
   independent businesses) to close their doors and white-collar offices
   to lay off workers.

   A total of 33.5 million workers have filed for unemployment
   compensation since mid-March, with a declining number each week over
   the seven-week period.

   The workers looking for jobless benefits are usually paid not quite
   half of their regular wages. But with the virus tightening its grip on
   the American economy, the federal government is currently paying
   unemployed workers an additional $600 a week for the next four months.

   Now, President Donald Trump is pushing to reopen the economy, even as
   he acknowledged this week that more people will die as more individuals
   leave their homes and return to work.

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