The United States economy lost 20.5 million jobs last month. That represents the sharpest increase in the number of jobless Americans since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It is the strongest evidence yet of how much damage the novel coronavirus is causing the world’s biggest economy. The U.S. Labor Department released its monthly employment report Friday. It shows April’s unemployment rate rising to 14.7 percent from a historically low 4.4 percent a month earlier. That sets a record for the highest jobless rate since World War II. The old record was 10.8 percent in November of 1982. The new unemployment report strengthens economists’ expectations of a slow recovery from the recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
