China News Agency, Washington, May 8-The U.S. Department of Labor released data on the 8th that the unemployment rate in the United States soared to 14.7% in April, and the non-agricultural employment market decreased by 20.5 million jobs.

　　The US Department of Labor said the changes in employment data reflect the impact of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic and prevention and control measures on the United States. Jobs in all major industrial sectors have fallen sharply, especially in the leisure and hotel industries.

　　The Associated Press said that the US unemployment rate in April was the highest since the Great Depression in the 1930s. Almost all employment growth in the United States since the 2018 financial crisis has disappeared in the past month.

　　Just in February this year, the unemployment rate in the United States was at a 50-year low of 3.5%, and the number of non-agricultural employment continued to increase for 113 consecutive months. In March, the US unemployment rate was 4.4%.

　　Since President Trump declared a "state of emergency" on March 13, the number of people applying for unemployment relief for the first time in the United States has exceeded 3 million for seven consecutive weeks. At the end of March, the number of unemployed in one week was as high as 6.87 million. Statistics show that in April, the number of people who lost their jobs in the United States for less than 5 weeks increased by 10.7 million to 14.3 million, accounting for almost 2/3 of the total number of unemployed.

　　In April, employment in the US leisure and hospitality industry fell sharply by 7.7 million, a drop of 47%. Among them, the catering and bar industry cut 5.5 million jobs, showing the significant impact of the "home order" and other epidemic isolation measures.

　　Employment in the US retail industry decreased by 2.1 million in April. Among them, clothing and accessories stores with the largest number of layoffs of 740,000. In the past 5 days, the American Crewe Mail Order Company (J.Crew) became the first apparel retail enterprise to file for bankruptcy in the epidemic. Neiman Marcus, a US high-end department store, has since declared bankruptcy.

　　In order to alleviate the economic impact of the epidemic, the US government has launched two rounds of large-scale economic stimulus plans of US $ 2.2 trillion and US $ 484 billion since the end of March. In the first round of the program, the US $ 35 million small business loan project was suspended for less than two weeks because the funds were used up, and the United States added an additional US $ 31 million in the second round of the program.

　　"For the United States, a key issue is where the job market will go." Reuters said the bleak data strengthened analysts' expectations that the global economy will recover slowly from the recession caused by the New Corona virus pandemic, causing consumers A series of economic figures, such as expenditures, corporate investment, trade, productivity, and property market, have worsened.

　　Although controlling the epidemic and restarting the economy are still under intense discussion, by May 11, more than half of the US states will reopen their economies. "The Wall Street Journal" pointed out that the length of the US employment crisis will depend on the duration of the epidemic and the speed of restarting the economy.

　　The Budget Office of the US Congress stated that the unemployment rate in the United States may fall back to 9.5% by the end of 2021. Some economists also analyzed that, under the optimistic situation, if the factory is closed and the work can be resumed quickly, it is also possible to reduce the unemployment rate to about 4% by the middle of 2021. But if the epidemic rebounds and the "Home Order" comes into effect again, the unemployment rate in the United States will remain at double digits next year. (Finish)