May 9, 2020 - Economy
Few jobs are safe as unemployment reaches Great Depression levels
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The reality, incredibly, is worse than the data. Neil Irwin, N.Y. Times senior economics correspondent, captures one of the most sobering reasons: "Almost Every Job Is at Risk."
The big picture: "April 2020 — more technically, the period between the second week of March and the second week of April — was the worst month for American workers at least since the Great Depression and possibly in the history of the nation."
Why it matters to you, from Neil's piece: "...Walmart and a few odd exceptions aside, there was no shelter in the storm for American workers in the last month."
"Anyone still thinking that the pandemic’s economic effects are limited to people in restaurants, travel and similar service businesses is very much mistaken. Workers in almost every industry, including those that on the surface shouldn’t be affected by the pandemic at all, are at risk. We’re all vulnerable, whether we work in an office or a factory or a construction site; whether our employer is public or private; whether our work can easily be migrated to a home office or not."
Go deeper: The month we fell off a cliff
