Since the US economy was essentially shutdown four weeks ago, the economic fallout has been tremendous and devastating. With businesses closing across all sectors of the economy, millions of people have been forced into unemployment.
The number of people who have identified themselves as jobless by applying for unemployment benefits increased by another 5.2 million people in the week beginning April 5th.
This figure, combined with the previous three weeks, takes the total unemployment claims since the shutdown began to over 22 million people. To put it simply; this is staggering, and unprecedented.
The number of unemployment claims completely dwarfs any other of the worst four-week periods in modern American history. Even in the midst of the global financial crisis of 2008/2009, the figure came in at just over 2.64 million.
These unemployment statistics coming out of the US provide another stark example of just how deep and severe the economic crisis which will follow this pandemic could be. All eyes are going to be on the American government when the economy begins to reopen, to see how they use policy instruments and legislation to help people get back to work.
THINK LIKE AN ECONOMIST!
- What type of unemployment is described in the article?
- What types of jobs do you think have been worst affected by this crisis? Explain why.
- Discuss some of the different policy instruments or legislation that the American government could introduce to help people get back to work.
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