Unemployment in New York hit an all-time high in April as the state lost more than 1.8 million jobs last month as authorities try to contain the country’s worst coronavirus epidemic. .
This was the second largest number of job losses of any state in the United States. United States After California, which lost more than 2.3 million jobs in April, according to data released Friday by the United States Department of Labor. United States Record number of job losses pushed New York’s unemployment rate to 14.5%, seasonally adjusted, the highest recorded for the state in 44 years of the report, compared to just 4, 1% in March.
All 50 states suffered job losses in April when governments adopted varying degrees of social distancing to stop the spread of COVID-19, including asking to shut down nonessential businesses, shut down school systems and ask people to stay. at home.
New York’s unemployment rate was slightly better than that of the country, which reached 14.7% in April. And although it is the national epicenter of the disease, unemployment in New York City was on par with the state and the nation, at 14.2%.
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As of Friday, the city had nearly 200,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than 16,300 deaths. Statewide, New York has the highest number of COVID-19-related deaths in the country, with 23,195 deaths on Friday.
In fact, the New York job market appears to have performed better in April than any of the six metropolitan areas captured in the monthly data series, which includes Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle. Detroit’s unemployment rate was the worst of six, reaching 21.6%.
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Food and nightlife, recreation, tourism and manufacturing workers in the United States have been among the hardest hit by layoffs and departures since the onset of the crisis. As a result, states that depend on tourism, such as Nevada and Hawaii, have some of the highest unemployment rates. More than a quarter of Nevada’s workforce was unemployed in April.
In the United States, about 35.5 million people have applied for unemployment benefits through their respective states since mid-March, when measures to stay at home began.
New York State cut 578,000 recreation and hospitality jobs in April alone, accounting for about two-thirds of the state industry’s total workforce. The state has also lost 340,000 jobs in commerce, transportation and public services, with stay-at-home orders crippling trains and air travel.
Meanwhile, New York lost more than 167,000 construction jobs last month, while the state banned everything except essential work to continue. These jobs have fallen by about 40% since the start of the crisis, although they may be among the first industries where jobs recover, as construction will resume in all regions of the state, except New York, next week, said Governor Andrew Cuomo. Friday.
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The longer certain businesses are closed, the more difficult it will be for many, especially small businesses, to reopen and re-hire. The state took another step to protect itself from this on Friday, launching a $ 100 million loan program to help small businesses with 20 or fewer employees, Cuomo said.
The state will focus the program on businesses belonging to minorities and women who have not received assistance under federal programs, he said. “We are going to focus on real small businesses.”