In April, U.S. unemployment rate hits the worst since the Great Depression

DORAL, FL – The U.S. unemployment rate hits 14.7 percent in April, which according to the Labor Department it’s the highest rate since the Great Depression in the 1930’s.

This scenario was fueled by the many businesses across the nation that have had to shut down, limit their operations to avoid spreading COVID-19 or let go of several employees due to economic reasons.

Just last month, 20.5 million people lost their jobs around the country erasing the job growth the nation has experimented since not only the far-away 1930’s but most recently the 2007-09 crisis, which according to the Washington Post it wasn’t nearly as bad as the economic contraction the country is experiencing right now.

In addition to this, 5.1 million others had their hours reduced in April, while the underemployment rate, which counts the unemployed plus full-time workers who were reduced to part-time work, reached 22.8 percent, as reported by Global News. 

The most concerning part is that these numbers are not even regarding those that lost their jobs but didn’t look for another one, since those weren’t counted in the unemployment rate.

During March and April, the government and many local leaders across the nation took measures such as closing businesses, parks and beaches or putting in motion stay at home orders in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus, which ultimately has forced many companies to let go of their work force at an unfortunate rapid rate. 

Due to this, many analysts think it would take many years to return to the 3.5 percent unemployment rate the country experience in February. A month after that, the U.S. unemployment rate was already at 4.4 percent. 

With the current rate, millions of Americans had had to look for help in food banks, seek government aid, stop paying rent and other bills, lose their health insurance or even selling their homes. 

Among the sectors that have been most affected, the hospitality takes the first place with 7.7 million jobs lost in April, while retail lost 2.1 million jobs and manufacturing lost 1.3 million jobs.

According to the Washington Post, the job losses have been experienced greater by the Hispanics, African-Americans and low-wage workers in restaurants and retail compared to the rest of the population. 

The unemployment rate in April jumped to a record 18.9 percent for Hispanics, 16.7 percent for African-Americans and 14.2 percent for whites.