WASHINGTON, D.C. (NBC) – The damage of the coronavirus-induced economic shutdown is clearly evident in the labor department’s jobs report released Friday.
The Labor Department reports that the economy slashed more than 20 million jobs in the month of April. That sent the unemployment rate skyrocketing to 14.7%.
That is well off the low unemployment rate of 3.5% we saw in February.
To put this in perspective, 14.7% unemployment is still significantly higher than the highest unemployment rate of ten percent we saw during the Great Recession. But it falls well short of the Great Depression high estimated to be nearly 25% unemployment
And the report shows April’s job losses have roughly erased all the gains made over the last decade since the Great Recession.
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