BLS Data Shows Shocking Job Losses in April

We’re all saturated with news of the employment disaster caused by the coronavirus, but to look at the long-term picture graphically is still shocking.

Figure 1 shows the three-month moving average (3MMA) of the number of jobs created or lost through April since 2005 as the brown bars and the total number employed as the black line. The Great Recession of 2008-09 appears as a mere bump in the road. The right hand side Y axis is 3MMA and only extends to negative 10 million. In the single month of April, 20.5 million jobs were lost; therefore Figure 1, as bad as it is, barely describes the gravity of the situation.