COVID-19: Highest Unemployment Levels Since Great Depression
The Claim
Due to the pandemic, unemployment rates in the US are worse than they were during the Great Depression.
News posted on
Emerging story
On May 8, 2020, many news sites posted articles saying that COVID-19 has created the highest level of unemployment in the US since the Great Depression. Derek Thompson at The Atlantic wrote an article called “It’s the Pandemic, Stupid” that calls the level of unemployment “record-breaking in every conceivable and terrible way.”
Social media users were quick to pick up on the claim.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar's investigation shows that news sites including NPR and the Washington Post wrote articles about the extreme levels of unemployment, comparing the rate of unemployment through COVID-19 to that during the Great Depression.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics posted the April jobs report, which says that the unemployment rate is 14.7 percent. Reading through past reports shows that this is the highest rate in the history of unemployment-reporting. In the height of the Great Depression, there was a loss of employment at 1.9 million jobs. Compared to the loss of 20.5 million jobs lost through COVID-19, even taking population growth into account, COVID-19’s influence on unemployment in the US is greater than that of the Great Depression. This is likely due to the speed and extensiveness of employment loss due to the pandemic. Many people are not allowed to go in to work due to the virus’s high transmission and death rate. Further, many businesses such as travel agencies, airlines, and cruise lines, experienced massive layoffs due to newfound travel restrictions. Analysts warn it may take years to return to the 3.5% percent unemployment rate recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in February.
