It was estimated that about thirty million jobs could be lost because of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak due to business closure. That number was last at 17 million as of three weeks passing, and now entering upon the fourth week as set a new record of 22 million according to CNBC and reflecting the predictions reported on from previous estimates.
Around 5 million more people filed for first-time unemployment claims last week, as the job market in every sector of the economy continues to be devastated by the coronavirus pandemic.
The staggering weekly number comes as President Donald Trump weighs plans to pull back on the social distancing measures that have shuttered businesses across the country, and reopen parts of the economy as soon as May 1.
State-mandated lockdowns have choked vast portions of the once-booming economy, kicking a total of 22 million people out of work and launching the nation into the worst crisis since the Great Depression. (source)
This is not something to laugh at. It is a hard and sad time for many, and it is likely going to get a lot harder not because “the economy is not being re-opened,” but because the rot of the economy that has been present for years has been exposed, something that is long overdue, should have happened, was not allowed to happen, and now like a festering wound oozing pus and other disgusting effluvia, is stinking up the hospital as the patient is dying from infection-related complications on the gurney on the way to a room.
This should have happened in 2008 but it was not allowed to. Now the inevitable has come but only with worse consequences.