Jobless claims

Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits gradually eased last week despite a stream of business reopenings, underscoring the longer-term labor-market challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Since efforts to the contain COVID-19 pandemic rapidly shut down the U.S. economy in mid-March, about 38.6 million initial unemployment insurance claims have been filed under state programs.

Fears of a rapid, massive displacement of humans by robots haven’t yet been realized, but machines have been taking over human tasks for centuries, and the pandemic seems likely to accelerate this process.

Joblessness now stands at the most since the Great Depression era of the 1930s after the coronavirus pandemic brought the U.S. economy to a standstill.

The Labor Department’s figures are projected to show a jobless rate surging to 16%.

The International Labour Organization expects 195 million full-time job losses globally, and forecasts a “significant rise” in underemployment.

The five-week total for unemployment claims reached 26.5 million in the steepest downturn for the U.S. labor market since the Great Depression.

The jobless rate jumped to 4.4% — the highest since 2017 — from a half-century low of 3.5%, and is expected to surge above 10% in the coming months.

“This morning’s data leaves no doubt that the economy is currently in a recession,” said Matthew Luzzetti, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank.

Locales with high concentrations of jobs in industries such as retail and health care could see as much as a 4% decline in their annual growth rate if the shutdowns last just a month.