1 / 2Virus Outbreak Illinois UnemploymentA man looks at the closed sign in front of Illinois Department of Employment Security in Chicago, Wednesday, April 15, 2020. With half-a-million people bounced out of jobs in the past month because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Illinois' unemployment safety net has been stretched to the limit. WASHINGTON — First, it was bars, restaurants, hotels. And clothing stores, movie theaters, entertainment venues.
“There really is no industry that is immune from the effects of the outbreak,” said Daniel Zhao, senior economist at job listings website Glassdoor, said. Layoffs jumped by nearly 40,000 in Texas earlier this month, the government's report said, fueled partly by job losses in a category that includes data processing and online publishing companies. In Maine, job cuts swept through employers in the professional and scientific fields, which includes architectural and engineering companies. Healthcare workers and administrative support staff lost jobs in Tennessee.
The coronavirus is also hammering economies around the world. The International Monetary Fund said this week that the global economy will likely shrink 3% this year, the worst downturn since the 1930s. The IMF forecasts that the European economies that use the euro currency will shrink 7.5%, while Japan's contracts 5.2%. The global lending agency, which has seen 102 of its 189 member nations ask it for assistance, does forecast a solid rebound next year.
In the United States, too, many white collar workers have been hit with pay cuts even while keeping their jobs. That's preferable to a layoff, though the reduced income, multiplied across the economy, is sure to slow consumer spending and depress the economy. All told, nearly 12 million people nationwide are now receiving unemployment checks, essentially matching the peak reached in January 2010, shortly after the Great Recession officially ended. That figure is less than the number of applicants in part because it lags behind the number of first-time jobless claims figure by a week. And many people who apply for unemployment aid are turned down and don't actually receive checks.