The nation's unemployment rate jumped more than 10 points to 14.7% in April as the coronavirus pandemic brought the U.S. economy to a standstill, the largest one-month plunge in employment levels since the federal government began measuring such data in 1948.
Total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 20.5 million in April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Employment fell sharply in all major industry sectors, with particularly heavy job losses in leisure and hospitality.
Unemployment rates rose sharply among all major worker groups. The rate was 13% for adult men, 15.5% for adult women, 31.9% for teenagers, 14.2% for whites, 16.7%% for blacks, 14.5% for Asians, and 18.9% for Hispanics. Except for blacks, the rates for all groups were record highs, the BLS said.
Economists had anticipated that the monthly government unemployment figures, which explore job losses more deeply than the weekly reports on new unemployment claims, would reflect an historic erosion of job losses. But some expect that unemployment will worsen in May, though new claims are subsiding and some states are beginning to lift lockdown orders.
"Even with the economy slowly starting to reopen, the number of unemployed should continue to rise sharply as governments, as well as businesses that have tried but not succeeded at holding the line, are now laying off workers," Joel Naroff, president and founder of Naroff Economic Advisors in Bucks County, said in a note to clients. He and other economists expect the unemployment rate to exceed 20%.
Most of the job losses occurred recently, reflecting the lightening strike to workforce from widespread COVID-19 lockdowns. The number of unemployed persons who were jobless for less than 5 weeks increased by 10.7 million to 14.3 million, accounting for almost two-thirds of the unemployed. The number of long-term unemployed, for 27 weeks or more, declined by 225,000 over the month to 939,000, or 4.1% of the unemployed.
The US labor force participation rate _ the working population between 16 to 64 years old who are currently employed or seeking employment _ dropped to 60.2% in April from 62.7% in March, the lowest rate since January 1973 when it was 60%.
The sectors hit hardest come as little surprise: Employment in leisure and hospitality plummeted by 7.7 million, or 47%, and almost three-quarters of that were in food services and drinking places.
Employment declined by 2.5 million in education and health services. While hospitals were overcome by COVID patients, other health-care sectors shed 1.4 million jobs, led by losses in offices of dentists, physicians and other health care providers.
Employment declined 651,000 in social assistance, reflecting job losses in child day care services and individual and family services. Employment in private education declined by 457,000 over the month.
Professional and business services shed 2.1 million jobs in April, led by sharp losses in temporary help services and in services to buildings and dwellings.
Jobs in retail trade declined by 2.1 million, including clothing and clothing accessories, motor vehicle sales, and furniture stores. The job losses were offset by a gain of 93,000 jobs in general merchandise stores, including warehouse clubs and so called supercenters.
Manufacturing employment dropped by 1.3 million, mostly in durable goods, such as motor vehicles. Employment in the other services industry declined by 1.3 million in April, led by losses in personal and laundry services.
Government employment dropped by 980,000, mostly at the local government level. Construction jobs fell by 975,000, led by the loss in specialty trade contractors.
Employment fell by 584,000 in transportation and warehousing, including losses in transit and ground passenger transportation and in air transportation.
