Coronavirus: Unemployment explodes in the United States

Text by: Anne Corpet Follow

Record peak in jobless claims in the United States. Nearly 3.3 million people applied for the allowance in the past week.

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From our correspondent in Washington,

3.283 million new applications for unemployment benefits in one week: almost five times more than the previous record which dated in 1982. The surge is brutal, it testifies to the extent of the crisis caused by the pandemic. Many states have ordered non-essential activities to stop. The closure of shops, restaurants, and many industries immediately led to layoffs here.

General Electric, for example, got rid of 10% of its employees. With the disappearance of their jobs, employees also lose their health insurance, which puts them in a very precarious situation in a country where healthcare is excessively expensive.

But the job market is not entirely bleak, said the Secretary of the Treasury this morning: a dozen large companies are looking for 500,000 new employees. Among them, Walmart, a distribution giant, CVS, a chain of pharmacies, or even Amazon which saw its orders delivered to homes explode. These new offers will not be enough to compensate for the job losses.

To try to avoid an explosion of social tragedies, the law passed last night by the Senate provides for an increase in unemployment benefits by 600 dollars per week. For the first time, the self-employed will be entitled to it.

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