The scourge of the pandemic of coronavirus in the economies it will be so fierce that experts agree that it is unnecessary to wait for evidence that they contracted for two consecutive quarters to talk about a recession.
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In the United States, a key figure in the labor sector began to unveil this Thursday the puncture in the largest economy in the world. Unemployment benefit orders rose to 281,000 for the week, their highest level since September 2017, they revealed. data from the Department of Labor.
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The closings of shops, schools and restaurants, as well as the cancellations of flights and events have foreshadowed for days what is now beginning to be concrete evidence of the impact of the virus that has spread throughout the country’s 50 states.
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“In the week ending March 14, the increase in initial requests (for unemployment benefits) are clearly attributable to the impacts of the virus (which causes the) covid-19,” the department acknowledged. “A number of states specifically cited the covid-19 for layoffs, while many states reported an increase in layoffs in service-related industries and the hospitality and food service industries,” he added.
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Transportation and storage are also suffering from the incidence of coronavirus, the government added. All this would be reflected in the next unemployment figure, which in February was at a historically low level of 3.5% before the spread of the coronavirus began to accelerate in the United States.
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