Replies to post #72726 on Options Wonderland

[3xBuBu]

Weekly jobless claims hit 5.245 million, raising monthly loss to 22 million due to coronavirus

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/16/us-weekly-jobless-claims.html

[3xBuBu]

China’s next coronavirus crisis: What happens after a country closes its economy

https://fortune.com/2020/04/20/coronavirus-reopening-the-economy-china-covid-19/

China has become the world’s pioneer on coronavirus response—a mantle assumed out of necessity. The first to encounter the COVID-19 virus in its industrial hub of Wuhan, China enacted mass lockdowns and managed to contain the outbreak. As the virus spreads across the globe, governments elsewhere are mimicking the tactic, forcing large swaths of the world’s population into inactivity, isolation, and even quarantine. But mandatory social distancing comes with a price, and Beijing’s response to the economic fallout is so far less instructional.

China’s economy endured a one-two punch under lockdown. With workers and consumers told to stay home, both consumption and production plummeted. The trade­off was a peak and steady drop-off of coronavirus cases; the vast majority of the 83,000 people infected have recovered, according to China’s count. But when data quantifying the economic fallout started rolling in, it was undeniably bleak.

“This is hands-down the absolute worst result we’ve ever recorded,” said ­Shehzad Qazi, managing director at China Beige Book (CBB). The consultancy surveys over 3,300 Chinese companies to gauge the strength of the world’s second-largest economy, and in the first three months of this year, all of its headline metrics—from revenue to profits—sank into contraction territory, a result never seen in its decade of tracking.

[3xBuBu]

Real unemployment rate soars past 20%—and the U.S. has now lost 26.5 million jobs

https://fortune.com/2020/04/23/us-unemployment-rate-numbers-claims-this-week-total-job-losses-april-23-2020-benefits-claims/


Another 4.4 million Americans filed initial unemployment claims in the week ending April 18. That's down from 5.2 million the week prior, however it marks the fifth consecutive week over 3 million, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

At the highest of levels of unemployment following the 2008 financial crisis, there were 15.3 million jobless Americans. But in the past five weeks a staggering 26.5 million workers have already filed jobless claims.

Prior to this five-week stretch of 26.5 million initial jobless claims, there were already 7.1 million unemployed Americans as of March 13, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. When the figures are combined, it would equal more than 33 million unemployed, or a real unemployment rate of 20.6%—which would be the highest level since 1934.