The American economy has shed a staggering 14 million jobs as a result of the nationwide shutdown ensuing from the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic. This estimate – which would constitute nine percent of the U.S. workforce – comes courtesy of extrapolated data from Survey USA published on March 19, 2020.
Meanwhile, the Survey USA data showed that another 25 percent of workers – 41 million Americans – have seen reduced hours as a result of the shutdown.
“Early markers on the road from recession to depression as the coronavirus threatens to stop the world from spinning on its axis,” Survey USA’s pollsters ominously noted.
Survey USA polled 1,000 American adults nationwide between March 18-19, 2020.
“Of the adults, approximately 60 percent were, before the virus, employed full-time or part-time outside of the home and were asked the layoff and reduced-hours questions,” the pollsters noted.
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Also worth noting? The Survey USA polling was conducted as the economic carnage related to the virus was still unfolding.
“Approximately half of the interviews for this survey were completed before the Big 3 Detroit automakers announced they were shutting down their Michigan assembly lines. For most Americans, events continue to unfold faster than a human mind is able to process the consequences.”
That’s for sure …
The economic ramifications of the world’s largest economy – with an annual gross domestic product of $21.4 trillion – grinding to a near-halt are nothing short of cataclysmic for millions of people.
Those ramifications also extend the conversation about whether the “cure” to this virus is worse than the virus itself – a discussion we have begun to have on this news outlet (see here and here).
“The cure is worse than the disease,” one of our regular readers based in the Midlands region of South Carolina told us. “I know people in private business who will be out of business soon. They already can’t pay their bills because the government/ media is scaring the hell out of people and scaring away customers, and de facto shutting them down. This is ridiculous. And Columbia, S.C. puts out a curfew!”
“This is not a linear economic model,” our source continued. “If things shut down for a week, (it’s) not like it will only take a week to get going again. The economy will get exponentially worse and things will get beyond the point of reopening, and then we will be in another Great Depression.”
Policymakers in Washington, D.C. are mulling a massive stimulus package in the hopes of keeping the economy afloat during the brunt of the pandemic panic. We will obviously keep our readers up to speed on those efforts, which are still being negotiated by the administration of U.S. president Donald Trump and congressional leaders.
We will also keep our readers up to speed on the latest economic data related to the coronavirus fallout – as well as the latest numbers related to the virus itself.
As of Saturday morning, there were 234,073 confirmed coronavirus cases in 176 countries and territories worldwide – including 9,840 fatalities – according to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO). Meanwhile, there were 17,962 confirmed cases in the United States – including 239 fatalities.
In South Carolina, there were 125 confirmed cases as of Friday afternoon with three fatalities, according to the latest data from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC). As we have often noted, though, data released by SCDHEC does not represent the complete extent of testing in South Carolina – which, in turn, does not represent the total number of South Carolinians infected by the virus.
-FITSNews
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