Harvesting the labor market – Unemployment in the United States increases

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Furthermore, statisticians only count those who register as unemployed and actively seek work. Some do not do this in this crown crisis, because in many sectors, for example in the hotel industry, there are in fact hardly any jobs left. Or because they have to take care of their children. And many volunteered because they no longer receive wages, but their work is assured. These are also not counted.

All employees working for contract or working for the concert economy, like Uber or Lyft drivers, are also statistically invisible. Two and a half million of those in need appear on the official list of beneficiaries of an emergency pandemic approved by the United States Congress.

The number of unreported cases is much higher.

In summary, whatever is true, the official unemployment rate in the United States does not reflect total unemployment, it is becoming a serious distortion during the Covid 19 crisis. In the labor market report, the DOL mentions that the rate it would be five percentage points higher if temporary unemployed people were included, almost 19.7 percent. A number that approached the Great Depression in the 1930s.

It may not make sense to discuss the precision of quotas: the crisis is dramatic, that’s for sure. And the big question now is how fast the job market can recover. In the United States, most states are trying to reopen their economies, at least in part. But since the pandemic in the US USA Not yet significantly weakened in many places, health experts expect a second wave in early June. It remains to be seen whether the opening measures can be maintained.

The United States Congressional Budget Office currently assumes an unemployment rate of 16 percent in the third quarter of this year and an average of 10 percent in the coming year. Thus, there is no prospect of a cure soon, even if President Trump radiates optimism and the Dow Jones barely reacted today to the bad news from the job market.

Isabelle Jacobi

United States Correspondent, SRF

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After studying in the United States and in Bern, Jacobi worked for Radio SRF from 1999 to 2005. He subsequently worked as a freelance journalist in New York. In 2008 she returned to SRF as a producer at Echo der Zeit and became editor-in-chief in 2012. Jacobi has been a US correspondent in Washington since the summer of 2017.