由于经济学家警告称，失业率可能达到自COVID-19大流行以来金融危机以来的最高水平，因此美国的失业率达到了创纪录的水平。
劳工部今天早上发布的新数据显示，在截至3月21日的一周中，有330万人首次申请失业救济。
劳工部表示，初请失业金人数激增是“有史以来经季节性因素调整后的初请人数的最高水平”，高于1982年的最高数字695,000。
该部门写道：“被大量引用的其他行业包括医疗保健和社会援助，艺术，娱乐和休闲，运输和仓储以及制造业。”它补充说：“几乎每个发表评论的州都提到了COVID-19病毒的影响，”并说服务行业受到了疫情的特别破坏。
截至3月14日当周，美国劳工部记录了281,000份失业保险申请，创下了记录，失业人数创历史记录。
该机构在发布数据后不久，要求州官员在发布今天的报告之前，不要透露其管辖范围内的确切索赔数量。
但是一些州当局忽略了劳工部的消息，威斯康星州透露，在密歇根州公布的数据显示该州的失业人数激增了2100％之后，短短9天就受到10万多份索赔的打击。
宾夕法尼亚大学经济学助理教授约阿娜·马里内斯库（Ioana Marinescu）在接受《新闻周刊》（Newsweek）采访时说，“并非所有这些新的失业救济申请都是简单的裁员。有些是临时裁员和休假。
但是她后来警告说，由于冠状病毒大流行，失业人数将“非常高”，并预测失业率将比2007年至2009年大萧条期间“高得多”。
上周提交的330万份初请失业金人数已经使上次空难中所见的一切相形见when。当时，截至2009年3月28日当周，初请失业金人数达到顶峰665,000人。
它们也大大超过了1982年10月初创下的695,000的记录。
康奈尔大学劳资关系学院的埃里卡·格洛森（Erica Groshen）说：“最终，我们将恢复充分的就业机会，但失去的一些工作将永远不会恢复。” “临时裁员通常会回来。”
雷蒙德·詹姆斯公司（Raymond James＆Associates）首席经济学家斯科特·J·布朗（Scott J. Brown）指出，有“轶事报道”，即时薪为零的员工，而不是被彻底解雇。
这位经济学家补充说：“失业率将在未来几个月内迅速上升，但3月份的失业率将低估这一问题（3月份可能为3.8-4.2％）。我预计失业率约为7％至8％在接下来的几个月内（在上一次经济衰退期间，我们的收入接近10％）。”他说：“尽管就工作人数而言，这种影响应该很小，但在大多数情况下，这使他们没有资格领取失业救济金。”
富国银行高级经济学家萨姆•布拉德（Sam Bullard）还表示：“我们预计，未来两个季度非农就业人数将减少约800万人，从而引发失业率在第三季度飙升至近9％。”
Naroff Economics，LLC的乔尔·纳洛夫（Joel Naroff）预测，如果与COVID-19相关的关闭持续到6月，则可能会“损失5-8百万个工作机会，失业率将从8.5％上升到12.0％”。
他补充说：“ 4月份的就业人数可能下降超过100万，失业率上升1个百分点。” “类似的数字可能会持续三个月。”
在上周COVID-19大流行继续蔓延之际，紧随其后的美国三大股指暴跌，但美联储研究与统计部前主任戴维·威尔科克斯（David Wilcox）表示，月度工作报告“可能是有史以来最糟糕的报告”。
他还告诉《新闻周刊》，5月份涵盖4月份工资期的工作报告将包含有关冠状病毒崩溃造成的裁员的特别重要数据。
在大萧条时期，美国的失业率在1933年达到24.9％的峰值，并在1982年12月创下了10.8％的萧条后纪录。
在2007年至2009年的金融崩溃期间，美国的失业率在2009年10月达到10％的峰值，此后一直稳定下降。
根据美国劳工统计局的最新数据，截至2月底，失业率稳定在3.5％。平民劳动力总数约为164,546,000人。
为了超过大萧条的最高失业率，COVID-19大流行将使空前的41,136,500名美国人失业。
AS JOBLESS CLAIMS SURGE BY 3 MILLION, UNEMPLOYMENT MAY SOON BE HIGHEST SINCE FINANCIAL CRISIS
U.S. jobless claims hit record levels on Thursday as economists warned that the unemployment rate could reach its highest levels since the financial crisis amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
New data released by the Department of Labor this morning revealed that 3.3 million initial claims for unemployment benefits were made in the week ending March 21.
The Labor Department said the spike in jobless claims was "the highest level of seasonally adjusted initial claims" in history, up from a previous high of 695,000 in 1982.
"Additional industries heavily cited for the increases included the health care and social assistance, arts, entertainment and recreation, transportation and warehousing, and manufacturing industries," the department wrote.It added that "nearly every state providing comments cited the COVID-19 virus impacts," and said the services industry had been particularly damaged by the outbreak.
The record shattering jobless claims data came a week after the Labor Department recorded 281,000 applications for unemployment insurance in the week ending March 14.
Shortly after it published its data, the agency asked state officials not to reveal the exact number of claims in their jurisdictions until it published today's report.
But some state authorities ignored the labor department missive, with Wisconsin revealing that it was hit by more than 100,000 claims in just nine days after Michigan published data showing jobless claims in the state surged by 2,100 percent.
Speaking to Newsweek about the spike in jobless claims last week, Ioana Marinescu, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania said: "Not all of these new unemployment claims are simple layoffs. Some are temporary layoffs and furloughs."
But she later warned that jobless claims were going to be "very high" as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and predicted that unemployment levels would be "much higher" than they were during the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009.
The 3.3 million initial unemployment claims filed last week already dwarf anything seen during the last crash, when initial jobless claims peaked at 665,000 in the week ending March 28, 2009.
They also far exceed the previous record of 695,000 set at the start of October, 1982.
"Eventually we will return to full employment, but some jobs lost will never return," Erica Groshen of Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations said. "Temporary layoffs typically do return."
Scott J. Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates, noted that there were "anecdotal reports" of hourly employees having their hours docked to zero rather than being laid off outright.
The economist added: "The unemployment rate should rise quickly over the next few months, but the March increase will understate the problem (maybe 3.8-4.2 percent in March). I'd expect to see an unemployment rate of about 7-8 percent in the next few months (we got near 10 percent during the previous downturn).""While that effect should be small in terms of the job numbers, it prevents them from qualifying for unemployment benefits in most cases," he said.
"We look for nonfarm payrolls to decline by roughly 8-million over the next two quarters, sparking the unemployment rate to shoot up to nearly 9 percent by Q3," Wells Fargo senior economist Sam Bullard also said.
Joel Naroff of Naroff Economics, LLC predicted that there could be "something in the range of 5-8 million jobs lost and the unemployment rate rising to anywhere from 8.5 percent to 12.0 percent" if COVID-19 related shutdowns last until June.
"April could show a decline in payrolls above 1 million and a rise in the unemployment rate by one percentage point," he added. "Similar numbers could be sustained for three months."
While the three most followed U.S. indices plunged as the COVID-19 pandemic continued its spread last week, the former Director of the Federal Reserve's Division of Research and Statistics David Wilcox said monthly job reports were "likely to be the worst ever on record."
He also told Newsweek that May's job report covering April's pay period would have particularly important data on layoffs resulting from the coronavirus crash.
The U.S. unemployment rate peaked at 24.9 percent in 1933 amid the Great Depression, and hit a post-Depression record of 10.8 percent in December 1982.
During the Financial Crash of 2007 to 2009, the U.S. unemployment rate hit a 10 percent peak in October of 2009 and has steadily declined since.
According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the unemployment rate was steady at 3.5 percent as of the end of February. The total civilian labor force stood at roughly 164,546,000 people.
In order to surpass the Great Depression's peak rate of unemployment, an unprecedented 41,136,500 Americans would have to be put out of work by the COVID-19 pandemic.
