US Unemployment Close to 20%

We had another 4.4mm jobless claims here in the U.S. this morning. That puts the aggregate total at close to 26.5mm in just 5 weeks.

Given we had about 160mm people employed in the U.S. in March, that implies an increase of unemployment of approximately 16.7%, which would put us near 20% unemployment currently in the U.S.

To put that in perspective, here is the last unemployment rates in the U.S. with the expected rate attached to the end.

Note the April report won’t look this bad because the unemployment survey is taken in the middle of April. Additionally, I am sure many people will drop out of the work force.