Charles Croucher: A record 20.5 million American jobs lost in April

With much of the American economy in self-imposed shutdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus, April's colossal surge in unemployment delivered a historic blow to workers. The US economy lost 20.5 million jobs in April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday — by far the most sudden and largest decline since the government began tracking the data in 1939. Those losses follow steep cutbacks in March as well, when employers slashed 870,000 jobs. Those two months amount to layoffs so severe, they more than double the 8.7 million jobs lost during the financial crisis. For many Americans who lost their jobs and their homes in the 2008 financial crisis, this moment reopens old wounds. It took years to rebound from those setbacks. When the economy eventually did crawl back, US employers added 22.8 million jobs over 10 years — a victory for all those who had weathered the Great Recession. Now, the coronavirus pandemic stings not only because of the public health crisis it has inflicted — but also because it wiped out nearly that whole decade of job gains in just two months. The unemployment rate soared to 14.7% in April, its highest level since the BLS started recording the monthly rate in 1948. The last time American joblessness was that severe was the Great Depression: The unemployment rate peaked at 24.9% in 1933, according to historical annual estimates from the BLS. By all accounts, it's been a devastating two months for American workers. "Each unemployed person is a person whose life is now in turmoil," White House Economic Advisor Kevin Hassett told CNN's Poppy Harlow, describing the report as "heartbreaking." How we got here In late March, state and local governments enacted stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Businesses suddenly closed en masse, laying off or furloughing millions of workers. The government's jobs report shows some of the steepest job losses in leisure and hospitality, which lost 7.7 million jobs, and retail, which lost 2.1 million jobs. Even as hospitals struggled to serve an influx in patients, health care workers suffered layoffs, too, with outpatient services like physicians and dentists' offices cutting 1.2 million jobs in April. Food and beverage stores, which have also been essential during the crisis, lost 42,000 jobs. And as terrible as those numbers are, they don't tell the full story. The jobs numbers come from a survey of employers, and do not include independent contractors like Uber and Lyft drivers in the gig economy. Likewise, the unemployment rate, which comes from a survey of households, probably undercounts the number of jobless Americans, too. People are only counted as "unemployed" by the BLS when they have been out of work but actively searched for a new job in the prior four weeks. Or, if they were a "temporary layoff" with the expectation of being rehired within six months. Among the 23 million people who were counted as unemployed in April, about 18 million were "on temporary layoff." While that's a stark number, it could be an encouraging sign that for many people, job losses could be short lived — and they'll be able to return to work when businesses re-open. That said, millions of other laid-off workers were not even included in the unemployment rate. With much of the country still under stay-at-home orders, many jobless workers weren't looking for new jobs in April. Instead of being counted as "unemployed," those people were categorized as having dropped out of the labor force. The employment-population ratio, which measures the share of the US population over age 16 with a job, shrank to 51.3% in April, down from 60% in March and its lowest level on record since the BLS started tracking that number in 1948. Economists expect many people will be able to find work again as businesses gradually reopen, but it could take months or even years for the job... See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.