Another surge in U.S. jobless applications

April 23, 2020 - Since the U.S. went into lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic, more than 30 million Americans have lost their jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Related Graphics

View More

iPhone sales slump despite booming smartphone market

Oil could reach $100 a barrel for first time in years

Titanic “door” prop sells for $718,750

Baltimore port closure will hit supply chains hard

India’s wealth gap widens

British luxury cars are still being imported by Russia

Apple forced to reduce app commission under EU law

United States to target TikTok with new legislation

Bitcoin hits record high of more than $69,000

The most popular box office draws over the years

Huawei outsells the iPhone in China

Movie memorabilia auction to sell second C-3PO head

AI boom quadruples Nvidia value in just one year

WTO reforms plagued by obstacles

China’s homegrown passenger jet

Xbox to test four exclusive games on rival consoles

Bitcoin bounces back after scandals and crash

China’s Belt and Road loans

Netflix posts best subscriber growth since pandemic

China’s population decline accelerates

Apple is now the world’s biggest phone manufacturer

Increase in extreme wealth

Netflix cuts production in quality not quantity drive

Blue economy under threat

Mutual fund cuts X/Twitter value by 72%

India-Russia oil imports at lowest level for a year

How large would a “Warner-Paramount” merger be?

SpaceX leads the field in commercial space flight

China’s deepening housing crisis hits middle class

Developing world drowning in $3.5 trillion of debt

Just two month ago, new claims were below 300,000 per week. However, the record surge in suddenly unemployed Americans grew by another 3.84 million last week. This increase pushed the total to 30,315,000 since the coronavirus pandemic shut down large parts of the U.S. economy on March 20.

The U.S. labour force reached a high of 164.6 million persons in February 2020, just at the start of the pandemic. This latest statistic means that 18.4 per cent of America’s workforce has now been laid off or furloughed.

The growing ranks of unemployed came a day after the government said the economy had shrunk at an annualised 4.8 per cent in the first three months of the year, the sharpest fall since the end of 2008 when the financial crisis wiped out about 8.7 million U.S. jobs.

White House economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, said this week that the jobless rate would rise to as much as 20 per cent by June, which would be the highest figure since the Great Depression of the 1930s when it reached 25 per cent.