More than 33 million Americans have filed for jobless benefits in the weeks since the coronavirus shut down the world’s largest economy as the official unemployment rate rose to 14.7%.
Comparatively US unemployment stood at a 50-year low of just 3.5% preceding the impact the virus has had on economic activity and society at large.
This week high-end retailer Nieman Marcus became the first major department store group to file for bankruptcy as pressure builds on similar retailers to downsize and rejig their business models as individual stories of hardship become all the more commonplace.
It is the highest unemployment rate in more than 70 years.
With the official number edging closer to the 24.9% rate it reached during the great depression in 1933.
As lawmakers consider a fourth relief package on top of the trillions they’ve already pumped into the economy.
Speaker for House of Preventatives Nancy Pelosi says: “Honor our heroes, state and local. Open up government: testing science, that’s the key to opening up government. And third: putting money in the pockets of the American people. And again, the heartache that is out there. Research from Brookings reported that one in five mothers reported their children are not getting enough food, three times the rate during the Great Depression. So in addition to putting money in peoples’ pockets, direct payments, unemployment insurance, some other tax credits, we also really need to put food on the table.”
But it’s the long-term damage that the virus is inflicting, with a company like Nieman Marcus already weighed down by a hefty debt burden, exacerbated by shuttered stores around the country. The writing was soon on the wall.
Retail analyst Mary Epner says:”What’s happening at Neiman Marcus is also true of a lot of other retailers. I mean, we have Saks Fifth Avenue, and, you know, there may be issues there down the road. And, so, it’s really… the timing of it is interesting because we’re in a very difficult period in our economy. And these stores that have been allowed to stay open for a while, may not have the means to do it anymore. And, again, they may have to make the tough decisions. So, it’s going to affect everybody. It’s going to affect a lot of luxury players. And, having said that, though, there’s always going to be a fantastic luxury customer, because the rich still have money.”
The retail worker is among the more than 30 million that lost their jobs since March and has struggled to access government relief as part of the two trillion dollar stimulus package signed into law on March 27th.
Claudia Alejandra Lugo says: “I work at Macy’s. They told us we are going to close for two weeks, we are going to reopen April 1 but that was not possible so on March 28 or 29 they sent us an email saying we were going to be furloughed and that we need to apply for unemployment benefits which I did the same day. And since March 29, I’ve been in pending status without any update on my application from the unemployment agency. The bills keep coming in and we don’t have an income after when we were told to go home.”
As most states in the country engage in partial re-openings of their economies despite public health concerns that it could lead to a spike in all the key indicators, including death.
The US President Donald Trump striking an optimistic tone on unemployment.
In this video Donald Trump says his country could begin reopening their economies by May:
“The number (of unemployed) will start coming down at an appropriate time, whatever that is. I’m viewing the third quarter as being and very important quarter because, as I said, that’ll be a transition. I think you could almost say a transition into greatness because I think next year we’re going to have a phenomenal year, a phenomenal year economically.”
The economic doom not limited to the United States with the Bank of England this week warning that Europe’s third largest economy could be headed for its
