According to a US Bureau of Labor Statistics report Friday, the US economy lost 20.5 million jobs in April, causing the unemployment rate to soar to 14.7 percent, the highest level since the Bureau started recording the monthly rate in 1948.
According to historical annual estimates, the last time the unemployment rate was so severe was a peak of 24.9 percent in 1933, during the height of the Great Depression.
In March 2020, job losses totaled 870,000. During the years of the Great Recession starting in 2008, 8.7 million total jobs were lost.