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THEWALLSTREETJOURNALWEEKEND

U.S. employers shed more

jobs in March than in any

month since the darkest days of

the 2007-09 recession—inflict-

ing damage to the labor market

that economists say dwarfs the

most significant economic

downturns of the post-World

WarIIera.

Payrolls decreased by

701,000 jobs last month, the

Labor Department said Friday,

as efforts to contain the virus

disrupted the U.S. economy.

Job losses were widespread,

from corner restaurants to

manufacturing plants to inter-

national tourism.

The drop in payrolls was the

largest monthly decline since

March 2009, the worst month

for job losses during the latest

recession.

The unemployment rate for

March rose to 4.4% from 3.5%

in February, the largest one-

month increase in the rate

since January 1975.

Because of the timing of

surveys, Friday’s figures don’t

fully reveal the millions of un-

employment-insurance claims

individuals filed in the last two

weeks of March. Jobs lost in

recent weeks and additional

expected losses this spring

could push the U.S. unemploy-

ment rate to record highs,

with estimates ranging from

around 10% to 16%.

If shutdowns continue, the

April jobs report, due out

May 8, could show the largest

ever one-month decline in the

labor market.

Many of those who lost their

jobs expect it will be a tempo-

rary setback, with businesses

reopening after lockdowns are

lifted. Even so, the employment

collapse is unprecedented.

“There’s no comparison to

this shock,” said Gregory Daco,

chief U.S. economist at fore-

casting firm Oxford Econom-

ics. “The sudden drop in eco-

nomic activity is like what

you’d see in an area after a

natural disaster or a terrorist

attack, but it’s occurring

across the entire country.”

Major stock indexes fell on

Please turn to page A

BYERICMORATH

ANDSARAHCHANEY

There’s No More Sports Betting,

But You Can Wager on ‘Top Chef’

iii

Lack of basketball, baseball prompts

gambling on reality shows, clashing bears

A couple of days a week in

Omaha, Neb., Josh Skou likes to

unwind after work by driving a

few minutes across the Mis-

souri River to Council Bluffs,

Iowa, where he can legally

gamble on sports.

But these are strange, dark

times. Every major league has

shut down in the wake of the

coronavirus pandemic. So Mr.

Skou had to get creative. Flip-

ping through the channels at a

friend’s house recently, before

social distancing took hold,

they landed on “Bears.” Nor-

mally at this time they would

have been obsessively watching

the NCAA basketball tourna-

ment, but they settled for this

Disney nature documentary

from 2014 that was showing on

Starz. Two of these bears really

did not like each other.

Magnus the bear was pre-

paring to take on a challenger

named Chinook in a prize fight

for the ultimate bear spoils: a

prime spot to hunt salmon.

That’s when Mr. Skou’s friend

looked over and said, “I’ve got

20 bucks on the up-and-comer.”

Mr. Skou studied Magnus, a

powerful Alaskan brown bear,

and liked his chances. He took

the bet.

“They start pushing and

shoving, growling at each

other. Magnus stands there vic-

torious, and I won,” Mr. Skou

said. “It brought back a really

good feeling.”

Please turn to page A

BYANDREWBEATON

ANDJAREDDIAMOND

The federal government’s

$350 billion small-business

loan program got off to a rocky

start Friday, with some of the

nation’s biggest lenders saying

they weren’t yet able to process

loan applications, discouraging

business owners struggling to

stay afloat.

“I’ve driven around the Los

Angeles area for three hours

and called several banks,” said

Paulo Amaral, the founder of

Ally Right, an L.A.-based

startup that helps make web-

sites accessible to people with

disabilities. “No luck at all.”

By around 4:30 p.m., at least

9,779 loans worth about $3.

billion had been approved, ac-

cording to Small Business Ad-

ministration chief Jovita Car-

ranza, who was providing a

running count on Twitter. Mi-

chael Strain, an economist at

the American Enterprise Insti-

tute, calculated that half that

amount would keep around

400,000 employed for the next

eight weeks.

But with millions of people

losing their jobs weekly, that is

“a drop in the bucket,” said

Brock Blake, chief executive of

Lendio Inc., a technology firm

that matches lenders with

small-business borrowers.

Friday was the first day for

the new Paycheck Protection

Program, a part of the $2 tril-

lion rescue package designed to

address the economic fallout of

Please turn to page A

ByBob Davis,

Ruth Simon

andPeter Rudegeair

THE

CORONAVIRUS

PANDEMIC

Hospitals to be paid to

treat uninsured patients, A

Anatomy of an outbreak at

JPMorgan, A

New guidelines are issued

for nursing homes, A

Where Americans are

staying home, A

Small Firms

See Hiccups

Applying for

New Loans

Virus Deaths Soar in New York

Job Losses Swell as Crisis Deepens

Employers in March

cut 701,000 workers,

worst month since ’09,

as coronavirus spread

Medical workers load a body into a refrigerated truck outside of Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on

Friday. The trucks are being used as temporary morgues as the surge in coronavirus cases has overwhelmed the city.

STEPHANIE KEITH/GETTY IMAGES

Homey Recipes

To the Rescue

OFF DUTY

Preparing

For the Next

Pandemic

REVIEW

Greg Ip: Pandemic’s uncertain

path poses its own risk, A

Exchange: The month that

changed everything, B

Several U.S. airlines apply for

government funds, B

Trump pledges support for oil

industry, B

U.S. stocks cap another week

of declines, B

Heard on the Street: Jobs

picture will worsen, B

Free Joseon, which is dedi-

cated to bringing down the

regime of North Korea’s Kim

Jong Un, has organized de-

fections and escapes from

embassies, obtained govern-

ment documents, and suc-

cessfully rescued the family

of Mr. Kim’s exiled half

brother after his murder in

2017.

The persistent yet little-

known threat has raised

alarms within North Korea,

dealing a blow to the re-

gime’s carefully crafted im-

age of stability. Free Joseon’s

involvement in the defection

of North Korea’s top diplo-

Please turn to page A

ROME—One morning in

November 2018, North Ko-

rea’s top diplomat in Italy

left his embassy’s compound

with his wife. He told col-

leagues they were going for

a stroll.

Instead, the couple got

into a car idling nearby and

never returned. Driving the

getaway vehicle that day was

a member of a clandestine

group called Free Joseon,

people familiar with the op-

eration say.

For the past decade,

Southern California-based

BYBRADLEYHOPE,JOHNLYONS

ANDALASTAIRGALE

Kim Jong Un’s

Secret Antagonist

A U.S.-based activist made cracks in the

regime—until mishaps sent group into hiding

days a week, and several said

they are booked up a week or

more in advance. Funeral direc-

tors and cemeteries in the city

are struggling to service the

spiraling number of deaths,

some 1,580 from the virus

through Friday afternoon.

But perhaps the grimmest

reality in New York is that the

disease has hardly peaked, ac-

cording to officials. Mr. Cuomo

said earlier this past week that

the statewide apex might not

be until late April.

As it is, supplies of medical

equipment are already at criti-

cal lows, officials said.

Please turn to page A

2,935 have died statewide from

the illness.

“New York is in crisis,” Mr.

Cuomo said.

Nationally, 7,152 deaths due

to Covid-19, the disease caused

by the virus, had been reported

as of Friday night, according to

Johns Hopkins University. The

official number of known posi-

tive cases in the U.S. surged to

277,953 as the global total ap-

proached 1.1 million.

In New York City, the

mounting death toll is straining

services that cater to the dead

and their grieving families. Cre-

matories are being allowed to

operate 24 hours a day, seven

New York state recorded its

highest single-day death toll

from the novel coronavirus,

and leaders are warning the

worst is yet to come—possibly

as early as Sunday, when New

York City is expected to fall

short of badly needed medical

supplies and clinical personnel.

New York accounts for

nearly 40% of the total cases in

the nation. Gov. Andrew Cuomo

said Friday that the state re-

corded 562 deaths over a 24-

hour period, its highest daily

total since the rise of the new

coronavirus pandemic. In all,

BYCHARLESPASSY

“We in our company are do-

ing everything we can,” Mr.

Roman said in an interview.

President Trump on Thurs-

day invoked the Defense Produc-

tion Act, which could force 3M

to manufacture as many N

masks as the Federal Emergency

Management Agency deter-

mines are needed. “We’re not

happy with 3M,” Mr. Trump said

at a briefing on Friday, after a

tweet earlier in the day criticiz-

ing the company.

Mr. Roman in the interview

defended his company’s efforts.

“We are not fighting price

gouging? That’s absurd,” he

said. “We are not doing every-

thing we can to maximize respi-

rators in our home country?

Nothing is further from the

truth.”

Health workers across the

country are running short on

N95 masks—so-called because

they block 95% of very small

particles—as well as the

gowns, ventilators and face

shields used to treat the sick-

est patients with Covid-19, the

disease caused by the virus.

Governors, city officials,

health-care executives and dis-

tributors said a lack of federal

government coordination is

making it harder for them to

secure the supplies they need.

In interviews, they described

Please turn to page A

3M Co. pushed back against

criticism from President Trump

of its work to get N95 masks to

health-care workers in the U.S.,

intensifying conflict between

the administration and U.S.

manufacturers racing to meet

urgent demand for medical

equipment.

Chief Executive Mike Roman

said 3M is raising domestic pro-

duction, importing masks from

its plant in China and taking ac-

tion against price gouging on

masks that medical workers

need to treat patients infected

with the new coronavirus.

BYAUSTENHUFFORD

ANDJOEPALAZZOLO

3M Pushes Back on President

U.S. employersshed
more jobs in March than in
any month since the 2007-
recession, inflicting damage
to the labor market that econ-
omists say dwarfs themost
significant downturns of the
post-World War II era.A

The government’ssmall-
business loan program got off
to a rocky start, with some big
banks saying they weren’t yet
able to process applications.A

Several U.S. airlines
applied for government
funds to keep paying
workers, but said they still
needed more cash.B

U.S. stocks fell.The
Dow industrials retreated
1.7%. The S&P 500 and
Nasdaq both lost 1.5%.B

Walmart’s sales rose
rapidly in stores and online
in recent weeks as shop-
pers stockpiled supplies.B

Saudi Arabia and Russia
are pressing the U.S. to co-
ordinate oil output cuts in
a bid to stabilize prices.B
Trump promisedoil-in-
dustry leaders that the
government would help re-
vive the sector.B

What’s

News

CONTENTS
Books..................... C7-
Capital Account.... A
Food......................... D8-
Gear & Gadgets. D
Heard on Street...B
Markets.................... B

Obituaries............... A

Opinion.............. A15-

Sports........................ A

Style & Fashion D2-

U.S. News............ A2-

Weather................... A

World News.......... A

s2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

>

N

ew York staterecorded
its highest single-day
death toll from the novel
coronavirus, with New York
City expected to fall short of
medical supplies and per-
sonnel as early as Sunday.A
3M pushed backagainst
Trump’s criticism of its work
to get N95 masks to health-
care workers in the U.S.A
The administrationwill
use a federal stimulus
package to pay hospitals
that treat uninsured people
with the coronavirus.A

Trump saidlate Friday
that he intends to remove
the inspector general for
the U.S. intelligence com-
munity from his post.A

The FISA court ordered
the Justice Department to re-
view over two dozen flawed
wiretap applications.A

The eurozone survived
its debt crisis, but the
wounds never fully healed
and the pandemic threat-
ens to reopen them.A

Pakistani authorities
blocked the release of
prisoners convicted in the
killing of Wall Street Journal
reporter Daniel Pearl.A

World-Wide

Business&Finance

NOONAN

New York Is the

Epicenter of

The WorldA

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