{"id":206717,"date":"2020-05-05T07:03:44","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T07:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=206717"},"modified":"2020-05-09T06:55:04","modified_gmt":"2020-05-09T06:55:04","slug":"about-one-fifth-of-all-the-jobs-in-the-u-s-are-already-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=206717","title":{"rendered":"About One-Fifth Of All The Jobs In The U.S. Are Already Gone"},"content":{"rendered":"

And This Economic Depression Is Just 6 Weeks Old<\/h3>\n

Michael Snyder \u2013 The Economic Collapse April 30, 2020<\/strong><\/h1>\n

In all of U.S. history we have never seen anything like this.\u00a0 I have been sitting at my desk for quite a while searching for the proper words to convey the gravity of what we are facing, and to be honest it has been quite a struggle.\u00a0 On Thursday, we learned that another 3.8 million Americans filed initial claims for unemployment benefits last week.\u00a0 That was much higher than many experts were anticipating, because by now the initial surge of unemployment caused by the coronavirus lockdowns should have started to fade quite a bit.\u00a0 But instead, the job loss tsunami continues to roll on, and at this point a total of 30.3 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment benefits over the past six weeks.\u00a0 The following comes from\u00a0ABC News<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Roughly 30.3 million people have now filed for jobless aid in the six weeks since the coronavirus outbreak began forcing millions of employers to close their doors and slash their workforces. That is more people than live in the New York and Chicago metropolitan areas combined, and it\u2019s by far the worst string of layoffs on record.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to numbers that come straight from the Federal Reserve<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, more than 152 million Americans were working in February, and that was an all-time high.<\/span><\/p>\n

So losing 30.3 million jobs in six weeks means that nearly one-fifth of all jobs in the United States have officially vanished in just a month and a half.<\/span><\/p>\n

And actually things are even worse than that, because millions of Americans still have not been able to successfully file claims because state unemployment websites have been so overloaded.\u00a0 Just check out these truly alarming numbers\u00a0from the Economic Policy Institute<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Economic Policy Institute found that for every 10 people who said they successfully filed a jobless claim in the previous four weeks, three to four more attempted to apply but couldn\u2019t get through the system to file a claim.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, another two people didn\u2019t even bother to try because it seemed too hard.<\/span><\/p>\n

State unemployment websites were never designed to handle this sort of an onslaught.\u00a0 For some unemployed Americans, attempting to get the benefits that they have been promised\u00a0can be an exceedingly frustrating experience<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Marci Oberst sat down at her computer Tuesday and embarked on what\u2019s become a daily ritual \u2013 trying to log onto the Maryland Department of Labor\u2019s website so she can extend her unemployment insurance.<\/span><\/p>\n

At 9:30 AM, she was number 88,000 in line, according to the state\u2019s labor website.<\/span><\/p>\n

Number 88,000 in line?<\/span><\/p>\n

How is that even possible?<\/span><\/p>\n

Sadly, this is what an economic collapse looks like, and the months ahead are going to be exceedingly painful.<\/span><\/p>\n

Needless to say, economic activity has come to a virtual standstill during these lockdowns, and this is really starting to show up in the numbers.\u00a0 For example, Edmunds is projecting that U.S. auto sales\u00a0will be down by more than half<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0compared to last April\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

The car shopping experts at Edmunds say that April will be a record down month for the auto industry due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, forecasting that 633,260\u00a0new cars<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0and trucks will be sold in the U.S. for an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 7.7 million. This reflects a 52.5% decrease in sales from April 2019, and a 36.6% decrease from March 2020. Edmunds analysts note that this is the lowest-volume sales month dating back to at least 1990; the second worst month for sales in the past 30 years was January of 2009, when 655,000 vehicles were sold.<\/span><\/p>\n

And major retailers are failing so rapidly now that it is hard to keep up with all the carnage.<\/span><\/p>\n

The latest major victim to make headlines\u00a0is J. Crew<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Clothing apparel company J. Crew is preparing for a bankruptcy filing that could come as soon as this weekend, people familiar with the matter tell CNBC.<\/span><\/p>\n

Privately held J. Crew is working to secure $400 million in financing to fund operations in bankruptcy, said the people, who requested anonymity because the information is confidential. They cautioned that timing could still slip, and plans are not yet finalized.<\/span><\/p>\n

COVID-19 has created an environment of great fear, and as I have been warning for a very long time, financial institutions tighten the flow of credit in such an environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

We saw this happen during the last financial crisis, and it is starting to happen again now.<\/span><\/p>\n

All over America we are seeing lending conditions being greatly tightened, and Wall Fargo just announced that they will no longer be taking applications for HELOCs\u00a0at all<\/a>\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Wells Fargo, one of the largest home lenders in the U.S., is stepping away from the market for home equity lines of credit because of uncertainty tied to the coronavirus pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bank informed its mortgage personnel of the news Thursday in a conference call, according to a source, and the move was confirmed by company spokesman Tom Goyda.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was absolutely floored when I first read that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our entire system depends on easy credit, and these changing conditions are going to create quite a bit of chaos for the foreseeable future.\u00a0 Americans are going to find that it is much, much more difficult to be approved for home loans, auto loans and credit cards, and that is going to greatly depress economic activity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fear is also deeply affecting U.S. consumers, and at this point they are hoarding cash at a pace that we haven\u2019t seen\u00a0since the 1980s<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Americans are so nervous about the state of the economy that they are stashing cash in the bank at a rate not seen since the first year of Ronald Reagan\u2019s presidency.<\/span><\/p>\n

The United States government\u2019s Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Thursday morning that the savings rate surged to 13.1% in March \u2014 up from 8% in February.<\/span><\/p>\n

But of course there are tens of millions of Americans that have already run through their savings and can\u2019t hoard cash because they don\u2019t have any left.<\/span><\/p>\n

According\u00a0to one brand new survey<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, many of those Americans now find themselves unable \u201cto pay the rent, mortgage or utility bills\u201d\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

The coronavirus\u2019 seismic hit on the U.S. economy is rattling people\u2019s finances. Roughly 41% of working-age adults say their families have experienced a job loss, a decrease in work hours or other employment-related declines in income in recent weeks, according to a new analysis by the Urban Institute.<\/span><\/p>\n

Underscoring the jump in financial distress around the country: More than 4 in 10 of Americans whose work was affected by the pandemic said they weren\u2019t able to pay the rent, mortgage or utility bills; skipped medical care; or were at risk of going hungry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fear of COVID-19 turned out to be the \u201cblack swan event\u201d that burst our debt-fueled economic bubble, but this economic depression would not end even if the coronavirus pandemic suddenly disappeared tomorrow.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now that the economic dominoes are tumbling, all of the economic momentum is taking us in just one direction, and nobody is going to be able to reverse this process now that it has started.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next week, a couple more million unemployed Americans will probably be added to our rapidly growing total, and it is just a matter of time before \u201cgreat civil unrest<\/strong><\/span>\u201d<\/a> starts breaking out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our debt-fueled economy and our Ponzi scheme financial system were never going to be sustainable in the long run, and many have been warning for years that we would eventually be facing this sort of a scenario.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now it is here, and I wish that I could tell you that everything is going to be okay and that our leaders are going to be able to put the pieces of our shattered economy back together, but I can\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n

About the Author<\/strong>: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of\u00a0The Economic Collapse Blog<\/a><\/strong><\/span>,\u00a0End Of The American Dream<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The Most Important News<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I have written four books that are available\u00a0on Amazon.com<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0including\u00a0The Beginning Of The End<\/a><\/strong><\/span>,\u00a0Get Prepared Now<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, and\u00a0Living A Life That Really Matters<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this \u201cAbout the Author\u201d section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. I encourage you to follow me on social media on\u00a0Facebook<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.\u00a0 During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal\u00a0to share the gospel of Jesus Christ<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0with all many people as we possibly can.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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