The U.S. economy lost a staggering 20.5 million jobs in April, the steepest plunge in payrolls since the Great Depression and the starkest sign yet of how the coronavirus pandemic is battering the world's biggest economy. A White House official predicted Friday that the unemployment rate for May will be even worse. "Our economy is on life support now," said Erica Groshen, a former commissioner of the Labour Department's Bureau of Labour Statistics. Data for March was revised to show 870,000 jobs lost instead of 701,000 as previously reported. Economists say the U.S. economy entered recession in late March, when nearly the whole country went into COVID-19 lockdowns.

Source: CBC News May 08, 2020 13:25 UTC