US jobless numbers rise by another 3.2 million amid Covid-19 pandemic

Approximately 3.2 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, which reflected a continued decline from the peak in April but was still a record, taking up the total of job losses caused by the Covid-19 epidemic in the United States to 33.5 million, according to new data released Thursday.

Before March, when the epidemic which President Donald Trump has stated that the “worst attack” in US history, more dangerous than the 1942 Pearl Harbor attack and the September 11 terrorist attacks got started, the number of claims for unemployment benefits had been historically 700,000 a week, going back several decades.

Though 3.2 million marked continued loss following 3.8 million the week before and way below the peak of 6.9 million applications filed in late March. The total figure for the past month due Friday is expected to be far grimmer, clearing out job gains of several decades.

Layoffs started mid-March as the country began to be shut down state by state to enforce social-distancing and other mitigation efforts to combat the coronavirus epidemic. Restaurants, theatres, shopping mall, saloon closed, manufacturing slowed and travel and hospitality industry were crippled.

The epidemic’s devastating impact on the economy is telling families. New research released Wednesday by the Hamilton Project showed unprecedented levels of food insecurity in the United States. One in five children are not getting enough to eat, was one of the grim findings of the study.

At least 42 states have opened up or eased restriction to varying degrees in recent days. But the Wall Street Journal said citing economists that it will be months before US employers begin hiring consistently again and years before the millions of jobs lost thus far will be fully replaced.

President Trump, who has cheered on the reopening, expressed growing frustration with the havoc wreaked by the epidemic and called it the “worst attack” in US history.

US toll rose by 2,367 deaths in the last 24 hours, indicating a return to more than 2,000 after days of declining in numbers, to 73,435; and by 24,254 new infections to 1.22 million infections. While the daily toll had ebbed in recent days, the number of infections has hovered around and above 20,000.