Unemployment in the United States could hit unprecedented levels in the coming weeks and months, according to recent research by the developers of the US Private Sector Job Quality Index (JQI).
They point to a forced halt of business activity in cities, municipalities and states in an attempt to lessen the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.
Statistics showed that some 37 million domestic jobs are vulnerable to layoffs due to the temporary shutdowns created by the health crisis.
“There is a subset of these workers, in jobs often offering substantially less income than the above average, who are particularly vulnerable to cessation of economic activity due to the spreading pandemic,” wrote officials at the JQI, which was created by researchers at Cornell Law School.
The research found that the hardest hit will be limited- and full-service restaurants, with some nine million jobs at risk of layoffs in the near term. The education sector has some 3.2 million jobs at risk, while general stores could lose 2.8 million jobs.
A massive surge in the number of people applying for unemployment benefits has already been reported across the US. Jobless claims could exceed the record peak of 6.6 million recorded in 2009 if early figures hold, according to MarketWatch’s data.
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