In the last week alone, about 3 million unemployed people have registered. The share of the unemployed has reached almost 15%.
In the United States, 36 million Americans have lost their jobs since quarantine began due to the coronavirus. This was reported by The Guardian on Friday, May 15.
Over the past two months, more than 36 million Americans have applied for unemployment assistance, of which about three million were registered during the last week. In comparison, a year earlier in the same week, just over 188 thousand people applied for unemployment assistance.
The unemployment rate has increased to 14.7%, which is the highest rate since the Great Depression.
The U.S. has begun to ease quarantine, which allows small and medium businesses to continue working, but people still continue to lose their jobs. The publication claims that the current number of unemployed people may be even higher than the official figures.
In turn, the US Congress has allocated $350 billion for business support (loans and grants) under the so-called Payroll Protection Program. Moreover, Congress recently decided to expand this program by another 320 billion dollars.
Recall that previously the U.S. budget deficit has almost tripled due to the pandemic. Because of the pandemic, U.S. budget expenditures increased 2.6 times, while revenues collapsed by 55%.
It was also reported that meat is becoming an elite product in the U.S.. Meat is increasingly becoming a commodity for the rich, disappearing from conventional grocery stores.