10 Million US Workers Have Lost Their Jobs. And the System Has No Answers.
In the last two weeks, nearly ten million American workers lost their jobs. This is a crisis unfolding at a speed and magnitude unprecedented in the US and what’s left of our welfare state is uniquely ill-equipped to deal with the fallout.
Job seekers look over job opening fliers at the WorkSource exhibit, a collaborative effort by governmental agencies to offer jobs and job training resources at the Greater Los Angeles Career Expo at the Pasadena Convention Center on May 14, 2009 in Pasadena, California.David McNew / Getty
The unemployment numbers released by the Department of Labor on Thursday morning are nothing short of cataclysmic. In the last two weeks, nearly ten million workers filed new unemployment claims.
There is no analogue in American history for workers losing jobs at this speed and magnitude. Before last month, the previous record in weekly new unemployment claims was in the recession of 1982, when just short of 700,000 workers filed. In the week beginning March 21, 3.3 million filed. Last week, it was 6.6 million.
The numbers also show that the devastation has not been confined to industries most directly affected by lockdowns and shelter in place orders, like hospitality and retail. Manufacturing employment is contracting sharply, and the situation in the sector is already resembling the depths of the Great Recession. White-collar employment is also feeling the pain, as law firms, real estate, and tech have all announced significant layoffs.
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