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02 April 2020Unemployment benefits in the US in the week ended March 28 are flying at a record high of 6,648,000 units due to the impact of the coronavirus crisis, after 3.233.000 last week. Analysts had expected 3.5 million units to rise this week.It is the second consecutive week that subsidies rise to a record high. About 80% of Americans are locked out at home this week for lockdowns versus 50% last week.
The infected in the US have almost reached 200 thousand units, the highest level in the world. Subsidy applications normally in the US were between 100-200 thousand units before the coronavirus emergency. Their increase makes the idea of the huge amount of layoffs that are accumulating in the United States due to the stop of production activities and the bankruptcies linked to lockdowns. The closures are necessary to prevent the spread of the virus.
Constance Hunter, chief economist at KPMG, predicts that millions of other grant applications will arrive in the US and that at least 20 million jobs will be lost in the coming weeks.