According to the Labor Department, unemployment is defined by persons receiving unemployment checks from the government, not those who have ‘fallen off’ of the workforce. In the last two weeks due to the COVID-19 coronavirus effects, Bloomberg reports by way of Zero Hedge that ten million people have filed for unemployment claims.
After last week’s unprecedented 3.3 million surge in initial jobless claims, this week’s is even more unprecedented-er, adding a stunning 6.648 million (just 100k away from our estimate of 6.5million) for a two-week sum of 10 million new Americans claiming unemployment benefits.
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“The U.S. labor market is in free-fall,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics in New York.
“The prospect of more stringent lockdown measures and the fact that many states have not yet been able to process the full amount of jobless claim applications suggest the worst is still to come.”
And another important note is that weekly jobless claims data are based on “hard facts”, UBS points out, unlike survey data
which is subject to quirks around:a) some of the treatment of supply chains, which has flattered data,
b) the fact that many respondents will not be replying to surveys during the virus disruption period, and
c) survey data will give more accurate assessments during ‘normal’ times, perhaps not as much in unusual times. (source)
These numbers are terrible for the country, because a lot of people out of work means that people cannot live as normal, and if they cannot live as normal, they have to reduce expenses, and if they have to reduce expenses, it will force not a mere natural economic contraction, but a violent one that bears the semblance to a collapse of the current paradigm, since that is what is happening.
If you have a job, be very thankful, especially if it is one that keeps one away from this virus.
Things are going to get very hard in this country. It will not be the same again here.
If you do not have a job, start looking immediately because it will become very hard to find one.
Take care of your families, and if you are able to, work as a team to earn money and care for your needs. This is going to be one of the most effective ways to weather the 2020, which are going to be a horrendous period of economic instability that will cause people to seek out a savior, and when that person appears, one should not sit back and embrace him, but run as fast as possible, for this person will likely be the one who will lead the world to war.
A century ago, those men were Adolph Hitler and the Politburo members of Lenin and Stalin.
The new Hitler, Lenin, and Stalin most likely walk among us today. Beware of them, for if history is a lesson from the past to the future, the tools that exist today are things that one could dream of in ages past to do more effectively the same evils.
One saw what happened in World War II. One can wonder what World War III will look like…