The requests for unemployment benefits in the US exceeded 40 million due to the coronavirus crisis

More than 40 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits since the start of the coronavirus pandemic crisis, following a 2.1 million weekly increase in orders.

In the last 10 weeks, 40.7 million applications were submitted to the Department of Labor. Although the latest report is far from the maximum peak, which was 6.9 million in one week, it remains at historically high figures, still above the levels shown in the Great Recession of 2008-09 and multiplying the average by 10 weekly prior to the pandemic.

According to Reuters, the recent layoffs correspond to state and local government offices whose budgets have been decimated by the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, and a second wave of job closures in the private sector.

By now, two-thirds of the people in the world’s largest economy workforce receive more money in unemployment benefits than they earn on their wages, largely due to the additional $ 600 a week provided by the $ 2.3 trillion stimulus approved in March, and a minimum wage that has not risen sharply in several years.

This supplement will end at the end of July if the Senate, with a Republican majority, does not approve and President Donald Trump does not enact a second stimulus package for $ 3 trillion, approved by the House of Representatives, with a Democratic majority, and which extends the additional payment until January 2021.

One factor that can delay the return of workers to jobs, especially as summer approaches, is the shortage of childcare facilities and the cancellation of summer camps, which prevent some fathers and mothers from returning to their jobs even if companies reopen Their doors.

Confinement in the country since the end of March to halt the advance of the global pandemic generated a loss of jobs, which brought the unemployment rate from a level of 3.5% in February to 14.7% in April. Analysts estimate that it could reach 20% in the new report, a signal of concern for Donald Trump ahead of the November elections, although he hopes that an early revival can reverse much of the effects of the crisis.

For its part, the Department of Commerce reported this Thursday that gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic health, fell at an annual rate of 5% in the first quarter, a decrease greater than the 4.8% fall estimated a month ago.

It is the largest quarterly decline since the 8.4% drop in the fourth quarter of 2008, at the climax of the financial crisis.

(With information from Reuters, AFP and EFE)

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