Another 6.6M Filed For Unemployment Last Week, Bringing Pandemic Jobless Total To At Least 16.6M

The Washington Post: 6.6 Million Americans Filed For Unemployed Benefits Last Week, Bringing The Coronavirus Total To Over 17 Million
The surge of job losses continued last week with 6.6 million Americans applying for unemployment benefits, the Labor Department said Thursday. More than 17 million new jobless claims have been filed in the past four weeks, a rapid and unprecedented escalation in unemployment in the United States since the week that President Trump declared a national emergency due to the deadly coronavirus. (Long and Van Dam, 4/9)

The Associated Press: 16.6 Million Have Sought U.S. Jobless Aid Since Coronavirus
The figures collectively constitute the largest and fastest string of job losses in records dating to 1948. They paint a picture of a job market that is quickly unraveling as businesses have shut down across the country because of the coronavirus outbreak. More than 20 million American may lose jobs this month. The viral outbreak is believed to have erased nearly one-third of the economy’s output in the current quarter. Forty-eight states have closed nonessential businesses. Restaurants, hotels, department stores and small businesses have laid off millions as they struggle to pay bills at a time when their revenue has vanished. (4/9)

CNN: Unemployment Benefits: Another 6.6 Million Americans Filed For Initial Unemployment Benefits Last Week
Economists are expecting job losses will continue, with the unemployment rate peaking in the double digits sometime in the next few months, up from 4.4% in March. Bank of America economists predict employers will cut between 16 million and 20 million jobs, with the unemployment rate peaking at 15.6% between now and June. If that's the case, it could take at least a couple years for unemployment to return to its pre-pandemic levels. (Tappe and Kurtz, 4/9)

The New York Times: Tally Of Unemployed Workers Surges By 6.6 Million
With astonishing swiftness, the pandemic has shut down both longstanding and new businesses, leaving veteran workers and recent hires in nearly every type of industry without a paycheck. In just three weeks, more than 16 million Americans have lost their jobs — more losses than the most recent recession produced over two years. It’s as if “the economy as a whole has fallen into some sudden black hole,” said Kathy Bostjancic, chief U.S. financial economist at Oxford Economics. Many Wall Street analysts concede that at this point, forecasts are not much more than gussied-up guesses: The purposeful and sudden halt in economic activity has no precedent, and no one knows when the restrictions on movement and commerce will be lifted. (4/9)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Unemployment Claims Total 6.6 Million Last Week
Each additional week of historically high jobless claims dims the prospects for a rapid economic recovery once the new coronavirus is contained in the U.S. and businesses start reopening. “The biggest direct impact of the loss of jobs is going to be the loss of income and therefore the loss of spending,” said Jacob Robbins, assistant professor of economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago. (Chaney and Harrison, 4/9)

Politico: Unemployment Claims Reach 16 Million In Three Weeks As Coronavirus Ravages Economy 
The claims, for the week ending April 4, flooded in as confirmed coronavirus cases approached 300,000 and as nearly every state ordered its citizens to stay at home. Economic forecasts are becoming routine that predict unemployment will exceed its historic 25 percent peak during the Great Depression, and the number of jobs lost in a mere three weeks now exceeds the 15 million that it took 18 months for the Great Recession to bulldoze in 2007-2009. (Rainey, 4/9)

ProPublica: Inside The Union Where Coronavirus Put 98% Of Members Out Of Work
Last June, D. Taylor, the president of the union Unite Here, stood before a throng of hotel, casino and food service workers. They’d packed into a giant ballroom at the MGM Grand casino in Las Vegas to hear their leader celebrate the accomplishments of one of the few success stories in private-sector union organizing. To thunderous applause, Taylor ticked off the victories. The union, he said, was pulling thousands of members and their families into better existences, winning contracts with generous health care plans and pensions and safer, fairer working conditions. (Bandler, 4/9)

NBC News: Library Workers Fight For Safer Working Conditions Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
In Hennepin County, Minnesota, 220 library workers face a dilemma: take unpaid leave or get reassigned to work in hotels housing homeless people, including some with COVID-19 symptoms, with no extra pay. The offer came last week from county Administrator David Hough, who told staff that there wasn’t enough work for them to do from home while the libraries were closed. Workers who don’t want to move to the higher-risk jobs — of which there are only 50 positions — can use their remaining paid time off or eat into future paid leave allocations that they will owe the county. (Solon, 4/8)

The Wall Street Journal: A Month Ago, They All Had Stable Jobs. Now They Want To Work For Amazon.
One was an executive chef in Milwaukee. One was a small-business owner in Oregon. One managed merchandise for touring musicians. These three newly out-of-work Americans have one thing in common: They are all recently applied to work at an Amazon warehouse. Amazon’s 100,000 job openings in its warehouses and delivery network are a rare bright spot in a U.S. economy that has been wracked by the shutdown of ordinary life, causing about 10 million people to apply for unemployment in March due to coronavirus-related layoffs. (Mattioli, 4/9)

ABC News: Walmart Hit With Wrongful Death Lawsuit After Employee Dies Of COVID-19 Complications
A relative of a Walmart employee in Illinois who died from COVID-19 complications filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the retail giant, alleging the store did not do enough to protect employees from the novel coronavirus. Wando Evans, who worked at a Walmart store in Evergreen Park for 15 years, was found dead in his home on March 25. He had first mentioned symptoms consistent with the novel coronavirus to management at his store two weeks prior but was largely ignored, according to court documents filed Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court. (Hill and Thorbecke, 4/8)

State House News Service: Report: Mass. Jobless Rate Could Hit Unparalleled 25% 
The Massachusetts unemployment rate could race up to more than 25% by June, according to a new policy brief that suggests large federal block grants are the state's best hope for staving off a severe budget crisis. The Pioneer Institute brief noted that 8.6% of the state's civilian workforce made an unemployment claim during the week ending March 28, ranking the state sixth by that metric. In February, before the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the United States, the state's unemployment rate was 2.5%. (Norton, 4/8)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Gig And Contract Workers Can Apply For Georgia Benefits Monday
Georgia state officials said Wednesday that their systems will be ready next week: gig and contract workers as well as the self-employed can start applying for jobless benefits starting Monday. Those workers – tens of thousands of them without paychecks since the virus-linked shutdowns began several weeks ago – have been told not to apply yet, even though they are now entitled to jobless benefits. (Kanell, 4/8)

Reuters: Coronavirus Crisis Could Plunge Half A Billion People Into Poverty: Oxfam
The fallout from the coronavirus spread that has killed more than 83,000 people and wreaked havoc on economies around the world could push around half a billion people into poverty, Oxfam said on Thursday. (Strohecker, 4/9)