As the economy starts to slowly reopen in Fresno County amid COVID-19 restrictions, many companies are reporting large layoffs, according to the Employment Development Department. The most recent unemployment data through March shows Fresno County at 10.8% unemployment, nearly double the 5.6% state rate. One of the largest employers to...
10 Takeaways From the Worst Jobs Report in US History
BALTIMORE — Brutal. Horrific. Tragic. Choose your description. The April jobs report showed, in harrowing detail, just how terribly the coronavirus outbreak has pummeled the U.S. economy. Most obviously, there’s the 14.7% unemployment rate, the highest since the Great Depression. And the shedding of more than 20 million jobs, by...
US Jobless Rate Spikes to 14.7%, Highest Since Great Depression
WASHINGTON — The U.S. unemployment rate hit 14.7% in April, the highest rate since the Great Depression, as 20.5 million jobs vanished in the worst monthly loss on record. The figures are stark evidence of the damage the coronavirus has done to a now-shattered economy. The losses, reported by the Labor...
33 Million Have Sought US Unemployment Aid Since Virus Hit
WASHINGTON — Nearly 3.2 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week as the business shutdowns caused by the viral outbreak deepened the worst U.S. economic catastrophe in decades. Roughly 33.5 million people have now filed for jobless aid in the seven weeks since the coronavirus began forcing millions...
30 Million Have Sought US Unemployment Aid Since Virus Hit
WASHINGTON — More than 3.8 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week as the U.S. economy slid further into a crisis that is becoming the most devastating since the 1930s. Roughly 30.3 million people have now filed for jobless aid in the six weeks since the coronavirus outbreak began forcing...
Most Losing Jobs to Virus Think They’ll Return, Poll Shows
WASHINGTON — One out of every four American adults say someone in their household has lost a job to the coronavirus pandemic, but the vast majority expect those former jobs will return once the crisis passes, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The...
Virus Pushes US Unemployment Toward Highest Since Depression
NEW YORK — Unemployment in the U.S. is swelling to levels last seen during the Great Depression of the 1930s, with 1 in 6 American workers thrown out of a job by the coronavirus, according to new data released Thursday. In response to the deepening economic crisis, the House passed...
26 Million Have Sought US Jobless Aid Since Virus Hit
WASHINGTON — More than 4.4 million laid-off workers applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week as job cuts escalated across an economy that remains all but shut down, the government said Thursday. Roughly 26 million people have now filed for jobless aid in the five weeks since the coronavirus outbreak began...
Record 22 Million Have Sought Us Jobless Aid Since Virus
WASHINGTON — The wave of layoffs that has engulfed the U.S. economy since the coronavirus struck forced 5.2 million more people to seek unemployment benefits last week, the government reported Thursday. Roughly 22 million have now sought jobless benefits in the past month — easily the worst stretch of U.S. job losses...
Opinion: Next Stimulus Should Focus on Energy, Infrastructure
As a lifelong free-market conservative, I know it pained many of my fellow Republicans to vote for the $2.3 trillion emergency relief package signed into law last month. The thought that the economy may need an additional $1 trillion or more in federal spending before the COVID-19 pandemic is over to avoid...