Coronavirus: US unemployment rate is highest since Great Depression

Federal government releases its worst monthly job report in American history

The US Labour Department has released the worst job report in American history, as payrolls fell by more than 20 million and the unemployment rate soared to 14.7 percent

Donald Trump was on a live interview with Fox News when the jobs report was released. He told the network the staggering loss of jobs was “fully expected” and that it was “no surprise” that so many US workers lost employment due to the outbreak.

“Those jobs will be back, and they’ll be back very soon,” he said, predicting a major economic recovery in 2021. He did not provide supporting data or cite any projections, however.

The losses reflect what has become a severe recession caused by sudden business shutdowns in nearly every industry. Nearly all the job growth achieved during the 11-year recovery from the Great Recession has now been lost in one month.

The collapse of the job market has occurred with stunning speed. As recently as February, the unemployment rate was a five-decade low of 3.5 percent, and employers had added jobs for a record 113 months. In March, the unemployment rate was just 4.4 percent.

The government's report Friday noted that many people who lost jobs in April but didn't look for another one weren't even counted in the unemployment rate. The impact of those losses was reflected in the drop in the proportion of working-age Americans who have jobs: Just 51.3 percent, the lowest on record.

In addition to the millions of newly unemployed, 5.1 million others had their hours reduced in April. That trend, too, means less income and less spending, perpetuating the economic downturn. A measure of what's called underemployment — which counts the unemployed plus full-time workers who were reduced to part-time work — reached 22.8 percent, a record high.

Though some businesses are beginning to reopen in certain states, factories, hotels, restaurants, resorts, sporting venues, movie theatres and many small businesses are still largely shuttered. As companies have laid off tens of millions, lives have been upended across the country.

Job losses and pay cuts are ranging across the world. Unemployment in the 19-country eurozone is expected to surpass 10 percent in coming months as more people are laid off. That figure is expected to remain lower than the US unemployment rate. But it doesn't count many people who either are furloughed or whose hours are cut but who receive most of their wages from government assistance.

In the five weeks covered by the US jobs report for April, 26.5 million people applied for unemployment benefits.

The job loss reported Friday was a smaller figure because the two are measured differently: The government calculates job losses by surveying businesses and households. It's a net figure that also counts the hiring that some companies, like Amazon and many grocery stores, have done. By contrast, total jobless claims are a measure of just the layoff side of the equation.

For the United States, a key question is where the job market goes from here. Applications for unemployment aid, while high, have declined for five straight weeks, a sign that the worst of the layoffs has passed. Still, few economists expect a rapid turnaround.

The Congressional Budget Office has forecast that the unemployment rate will still be 9.5 percent by the end of next year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report