Washington (AFP)

American companies again destroyed jobs in March, almost unheard of in almost 10 years, and figures for new jobless claims, expected Thursday, should confirm that the pandemic has plunged the economy of the United States in the crisis.

The number of new unemployed registered last week should once again be in the millions. Between 2.8 and 5 million new unemployment benefit claimants are estimated to be announced on Thursday.

Last week, 3.3 million new applicants for unemployment benefits had swelled the ranks, unheard of.

Optimism is no longer welcome as the private sector stopped creating jobs in March. This had only happened once in almost 10 years, since the U.S. economy had managed to catch its breath after the great crisis of 2008.

And these figures, released Wednesday, end on March 12, before the massive containment measures. In April, "the wage bill should drop by 10 million and more," warns Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Last month, figures compiled by ADP reveal that only small businesses, the first affected by the impact of the pandemic, have already started to cut jobs. And in particular those with fewer than 20 employees, who account for more than two thirds of the jobs destroyed.

Companies with more than 50 employees continued to create jobs.

"The sudden shutdown of economic activity due to the coronavirus crisis has led to an unprecedented wave of layoffs by American employers," note analysts from Oxford Economics.

The year 2020 had however started very strongly, with 291,000 jobs created in January, a level more seen for almost five years.

But the coronavirus pandemic has brought the economy to an abrupt halt. The containment measures decreed, to varying degrees, by the American states forced many companies to close their doors or to drastically slow down their activity.

The trade and transport sector lost the most jobs (-37,000). Another severely penalized sector is that of leisure and accommodation, which has lost 11,000 jobs.

Construction also suffered, with 16,000 jobs cut.

Worried, the New York Stock Exchange ended in sharp decline Wednesday, the Dow Jones lost 4.44%.

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These historically high figures could be only a taste of what awaits the United States from April, alert economists.

Indeed, most of the available data still relate to periods prior to the spread of the virus throughout the United States.

Thus, the unemployment rate for March, which will be known on Friday, is expected by analysts to 4%, while it fell in February to its lowest level in 50 years, 3.5%.

But "the 3.3 million initial jobless claims announced last Thursday suggest that the unemployment rate may already have peaked at 5.5%," said former Fed President Janet Yellen on Monday. from a conference organized by the Brookings Institution.

The report expected Friday will not report such an increase "because it is done on previous data, but unemployment will surely increase a lot," she added.

US President Donald Trump has painted a grim picture of the days ahead, saying Tuesday night that the next two weeks would be "very, very painful."

The governor of New York state announced that the peak of the new cases in the state, epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, could not intervene before the end of April.

The unemployment curve should continue its exponential rise. For April, experts from Oxford Economics anticipate unemployment "around 12%", with "job losses (which) could exceed 20 million".

They predict that the job shortage will continue until 2021.

The Covid-19 killed 4,476 people in the United States, a figure doubled in three days, and affected 203,608 people, according to the American University Johns Hopkins, whose assessments are authoritative.

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