U.S. COVID-19 job losses hit 30M
Illinois claims drop below 100,000 for the week as another 3.8 million file for benefits nationwide
Illinois Department of Employment Security offices remain closed, although Gov. Pritzker claims improvements in the IDES online filing system. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
By Ted Cox
That brought the total number of unemployment claims nationwide to 30 million since the Labor Department first announced a record 3.3 million claims in mid-March as the coronavirus economic lockdown took hold, shattering the previous one-week record of 695,000 claims set during the 1982 recession. The 3.8 million claims last week was the lowest amount since mid-March, with the new record being the 6.9 million jobless workers who filed the last week of last month.
Illinois claims for the week dropped below 100,000 for the first time since spiking to a record 200,000 in early April. According to the Labor Department, 81,245 Illinois workers filed for unemployment last week, down from 103,000 the week before.
Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia tried to look ahead to an economic rebound in a statement issued with Thursday’s unemployment report, saying: “As states begin the process of reopening and Americans return to work, today’s unemployment report reflects once again the hardship caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The president’s actions and policies will continue to support American workers during this crisis. All 50 states are now delivering the $600 additional weekly unemployment benefit provided by the CARES Act. The department has disbursed more than $750 million to states to help them deliver this relief as quickly as possible as Americans follow the guidance of public health officials to ‘slow the spread.’”
The advanced seasonally adjusted unemployment rate continued to rise to 12.4 percent for the week ending April 18, up 1.5 percentage points from the adjusted rate of 10.9 percent the week before. But the nation was still bracing for the final April unemployment rate to be announced May 8. According to The Guardian, Kevin Hassett, senior economic adviser to Donald Trump, has warned that the jobless rate in the United States could spike to between 16 and 20 percent by June.
The U.S. Commerce Department reported earlier this week that the economy contracted 4.8 percent in the first quarter of the year, with most of the damage done just in the last few weeks of March. That halted almost a decade of economic growth going back to the end of the Great Recession, and set the stage for another recession to be declared should the economy contract again in the second quarter. Economic analysts actually expect a larger drop from April through June.
Wallet Hub reported this week that cities in Florida and Nevada bore the brunt of the worst job losses. Although Seattle in Washington, one of the first states to be hit with the coronavirus pandemic and one of the worst afflicted, topped the list for increased unemployment, it was followed by Hialeah and Miami in Florida, ranked second and fourth, and North Las Vegas, Henderson, and Las Vegas in Nevada, ranked third, fifth, and sixth. Chicago actually ranked 19th, better than Los Angeles but worse than Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which completed the top 20.
The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics confirmed that in data released Wednesday, reporting that Chicago’s unemployment rate for March stood at a relatively robust 4.8 percent, up year to year from 4.2 percent last March.