COVID-19 & THE US ECONOMY: US Unemployment figures continue to rattle already fragile economy

COVID-19 & THE US ECONOMY: US Unemployment figures continue to rattle already fragile economy … Posted BY Iain Fraser – Consultant Editor, GEOPoliticalMatters.com Malaga Technology Centre (Remote) The latest US unemployment figures make for stark reading and will do nothing to allay fears about the already fragile US Economy. The latest figures from the US show that the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits jumped by almost 3 million last week as the Coronavirus lockdown continues to take its toll on the overall US economy, bringing the total number of new jobless claims, since the middle of March to stratospheric levels to more than 36 million, accounting for a little under 25% of the entire US workforce. The cumulative weekly statistics had been falling, but taking historical figures they are still gargantuan, totally eclipsing the prior record of 700,000 in fact figures not witnessed since the Great Depression, prompting the head of America’s central bank to warn that US economic recovery is likely to be slower than initially hoped. In April, employers cut more than 20 million jobs, sending the unemployment rate to 14.7% and totally obliterating a decade of job gains, with the hardest affected among minority and low-income households, but have damaged every sector of the economy. Of course, these figures will rally as more states ease current lockdown measures and the population can get back to work, which in turn prove a stimulus for the overall US job market.