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* WaPo…
The surge of job losses continued last week with 6.6 million Americans applying for unemployment benefits, the Labor Department said Thursday.
More than 17 million new jobless claims have been filed in the past four weeks, a rapid and unprecedented escalation in unemployment in the United States since the week that President Trump declared a national emergency because of the novel coronavirus.
The 17 million figure includes new reporting from the Labor Department that even more people filed for unemployment in the prior week, pushing the jobless claims up during the week ending March 28 to a record 6.9 million, up from 6.6 million.
* NYT…
With astonishing swiftness, the pandemic has shut down both longstanding and new businesses, leaving veteran workers and recent hires in nearly every type of industry without a paycheck. In just three weeks, more than 16 million Americans have lost their jobs — more losses than the most recent recession produced over two years. […]
Given the current information, though, several economists expect that by the end of the month more than 20 million people will have been thrown out of work, pushing the unemployment rate toward 15 percent. In February, it was 3.5 percent, a result of 113 straight months of job growth.
* Fascinating…
My latest with @qdbui for @UpshotNYT: The usual economic indicators can't keep up when the economy is shifting this fast. So we turn to electricity data which suggests the economy has sunk further over the past 3 weeks than over the entire Great Recession.https://t.co/RXjUEUZvlO pic.twitter.com/ltG9yPPzEo
— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) April 8, 2020
…Adding… CBS 2…
The U.S.Department of Labor estimates 200,940 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of March 30 in Illinois.
While this number is based on advanced estimates, the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) will be releasing a final number later Thursday.
Last week, the IDES said unemployment claims for the week of March 23 totaled 178,421.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Apr 9, 20 @ 9:25 am
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The good news is that Illinois had less jobless claims per 1,000 than most of our neighbors.
Comment by A Jack Thursday, Apr 9, 20 @ 9:50 am
That electricity use data is not weather normalized. March - April are definitely our lowest electricity use months. An 8 percent dip for seasonal change can’t be compared to a year-over-year change.
Not denying the economic slowdown, but just saying that chart doesn’t show what they think it shows.
Comment by Ok Thursday, Apr 9, 20 @ 10:11 am
I wonder (rather, I am hopeful) of whether our generally stronger labor trends and practices in Illinois mean folks have better sick leave and bargaining policies, meaning workers in Illinois are slightly more likely to be retained, or otherwise, than abruptly laid off, than states with less stringent quarantine policies in effect but weaker labor practices.
Comment by Ok Thursday, Apr 9, 20 @ 10:14 am
Fed buying up to $500 billion in state and municipal bonds. Will that help local budgets here?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-09/fed-unleashes-fresh-steps-for-as-much-as-2-3-trillion-in-aid
Comment by ChicagoVinny Thursday, Apr 9, 20 @ 11:00 am
@ChicagoVinny
“Fed buying up to $500 billion in state and municipal bonds. Will that help local budgets here?”
Not really, no.
You have to distinguish between the first-sale primary market and the secondary trading market.
If the Fed were buying in the primary market, absolutely, interest rates would go down. They’re not.
Interest rates in the primary market are usually based off of interest rates in the secondary market, but it’s not clear that the Fed buying will change the secondary rates much. What the Fed buying does do is force people who are now holding cash to figure out what the best use of it is. And “buying primary market municipal bonds” might not be that best use.
Comment by Odysseus Thursday, Apr 9, 20 @ 3:24 pm