A new report from the Labor Department on Friday showed the economic storm associated with the Coronavirus battering the U.S. economy in March, causing the loss of 701,000 jobs, and pushing the jobless rate up by almost one percent, the largest monthly increase in over forty five years.
The unemployment rate was at 4.4 percent in March, not far under the 4.7 percent rate when President Donald Trump took office in January of 2017, the highest jobless rate of his presidency.
"Employment in leisure and hospitality fell by 459,000, mainly in food services and drinking places," the Labor Department reported.
"Notable declines also occurred in health care and social assistance, professional and business services, retail trade, and construction," the report added.
Lawmakers and economists readily acknowledged upcoming unemployment reports would likely be even worse.
"Elevated unemployment at 4.4 percent in the March jobs report shows only a glimpse of the surge in layoffs caused by the economic impact of the coronavirus," said Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX).
"700k is an awful jobs month," tweeted Austan Goolsbee, a top economic adviser under President Barack Obama. "That it’s the best news we will get for some time should give us a terrible pit in our stomach."
Last week, 3.3 million Americans filed for initial jobless claims.
That number doubled this week, as 6.6 million Americans made similar filings, indicating massive amounts of unemployment.
The massive amount of job losses have sent state governments scrambling to help people seeking jobless benefits.
But some states have found their systems ill-prepared for such a surge.
“I'm in Florida and get an error on the unemployment website when trying to sign-up,” one person told me. “I call and the phone number is busy.”
