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Breaking - Nonfarm Payrolls Fell 20.5 Million in April; Jobless Rate at 14.7%

Economic Indicators May 08, 2020 08:33AM ET
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© Reuters.

By Peter Nurse

Investing.com -- The U.S. economy shed over 20 million nonfarm jobs in April, the biggest monthly drop ever, vividly illustrating the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Nonfarm payrolls fell 20.5 million from March -- compared with a forecast of a drop of 21 million -- according to Labor Department data Friday, as government-mandated shutdowns and the prospect of slumping consumer activity forced firms to lay off workers in droves.

That comes after a decline of 871,000 in March, a figure revised from an initially estimated drop of 701,000, when an historic 113-month run of employment growth ended. The figures eradicate - if only temporarily - all the jobs created since the end of the Great Recession a decade ago.t

The jobless rate jumped to 14.7%, a post war high, from 4.4% last month. The broader U6 measure of under-employment rose to 22.8% from 8.7% a month earlier.

More than 33 million Americans have sought unemployment benefits in the past seven weeks. Restrictions such as stay-at-home orders and social distancing aimed at mitigating the spread of the virus have crippled business activity.

The data will likely add to the enormous pressure on states to reopen, even though the number of new coronavirus cases is still climbing in many parts of the country.

The BLS's data showed that the job losses had hit lower-paid Americans hardest.

"The vast majority of jobs losses were in the low wage (and low hours sectors)." Dan Alpert, managing partner of Westwood Capital, via Twitter. He noted that 18.1 million of the 20.5 million of jobs lost were production and non-supervisory.

Breaking - Nonfarm Payrolls Fell 20.5 Million in April; Jobless Rate at 14.7%
 

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Comments (44)
Brent Shields
Brent Shields May 09, 2020 5:34PM ET
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this means nothing trump has to follow the democrats rule book during this fake pandemic
perplexed76 .
perplexed76 . May 08, 2020 9:51PM ET
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in my primitive logics if numbers are not that bad, the market should drop not that low.
Get Sirius
Get Sirius May 08, 2020 4:52PM ET
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What are You buying few minutes before close, tell me the secret You thiefs
Dar Smith
Dar Smith May 08, 2020 4:46PM ET
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Yep these jobs are not coming back. We will have robots in stores and offices replace human capital as we open back up.
Get Sirius
Get Sirius May 08, 2020 4:11PM ET
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So bad news rise dow rise untill last minut of trading. Go go go. That is objectiv
Get Sirius
Get Sirius May 08, 2020 4:11PM ET
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Maybe only to slow. It should be raising at least 5k pts.
Mark OConnor
Mark OConnor May 08, 2020 3:08PM ET
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There is no amount of money a government can provide to fix this problem. The entire portion of our world economy that relys on people being in close proximity is OUT OF BUSINESS until a proven vaccine is avaiable. When that realization finally hits, look out. Or maybe people will decide that an unknown amount of deaths is an acceptable alternative, as long as its not them of course.
Mark Ukanela
Mark Ukanela May 08, 2020 11:29AM ET
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Those numbers are actually much worse. You try calling to file for unemployment. You can't even get through to anyone. They Have so many calls coming in for people to file for unemployment that they can't even keep up which means that the majority have not even filed yet! Saturday and Sunday they don't work so that gives people 5 days to call in. One number only accepts calls between 8 AM and 12 noon and the other one between 8 am and 7 pm so do the numbers for about 4-5 million people trying to call in everyday. You have over 800,000 people trying to call in on a daily basis. How many employees would that require to process at 15-45 minutes per call?
Harvey Chen
Harvey Chen May 08, 2020 11:29AM ET
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I agree. A friend of mine working as unemployment processor, people who called in spends a good amount of time to talk about their own story.
嘉偉 吳
嘉偉 吳 May 08, 2020 11:29AM ET
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American style.
Arthur Sommer
Arthur Sommer May 08, 2020 11:29AM ET
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Hello.......those people have all month to be counted, the numbers are for the previous month.
嘉偉 吳
嘉偉 吳 May 08, 2020 10:09AM ET
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Participation Rate drop, i think it is meaning how many people sick and can not work. Haha
Kaveh Sun
Kaveh Sun May 08, 2020 10:08AM ET
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Amy market is all about demand and supply. If the demand is high, price goes up. If there is less demand, price goes down. The stock market is no differrent. Funds managers r buying it. Fed is buying it. The world is buying it because usa stock market is still the best. Fed is pulling back purchasing, i expect the market to slow down in mid May.
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Kaveh Sun
Kaveh Sun May 08, 2020 10:08AM ET
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Jeremy Williams did u move ur 401k into boands. If u did. What can i say since bonds now have zero or negative returns.
Kaveh Sun
Kaveh Sun May 08, 2020 10:08AM ET
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Jeremy Williams i betcha dollar to donut that u dont ever talk to ur 401k fund manager. Or u dont even know them.
Jeremy Williams
Jeremy Williams May 08, 2020 10:08AM ET
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Kaveh Sun you couldnt think fast enough to put all that in one comment?
Arthur Sommer
Arthur Sommer May 08, 2020 10:08AM ET
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Kaveh Sun  the massive short interest that bet on a new low in march-April are buying it and may end up buying it to new highs at this point.
Arthur Sommer
Arthur Sommer May 08, 2020 10:08AM ET
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Tony NBC
Tony NBC May 08, 2020 10:06AM ET
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This stock market is disconnecting itself from real world, it is in the world of fantasy created by itself
Arthur Sommer
Arthur Sommer May 08, 2020 10:06AM ET
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Its the stock market, an index an investment tool a giant shared portfolio, one thing it isnt is the economy despite what people think it isnt a reflection of the economy and the economy doesnt effect it, it effects those that influence the index so it all depends on allocation and just what they are looking at down the road and how far. The index like institutions rotate(take out the trash) during these times to increase performance in the changing landscape.
 
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