Europe’s economies, too, are headed for severe
recessions, with surveys of economic activity
released Thursday plunging to all-time lows.
The downturn is putting up to 59 million jobs at
risk, or 26% of all employment in the European
Union, according to McKinsey, the consulting
firm. That figure includes people who could be
laid off outright as well as those who are still on
payrolls but might be put on shorter work hours
or furloughs.
Unemployment is also likely to rise in the United
Kingdom. Analysts at Capital Economics say the
U.K. economy is headed for its biggest quarterly
economic contraction in more than a century.
In some states, many laid-off workers have run
into obstacles in trying to file applications for
benefits. Among them are millions of freelancers,
contractors, gig workers and self-employed people
— a category of workers who are now eligible for
unemployment benefits for the first time.
“This has been a really devastating shock for a
lot of families and small businesses,” said Aaron
Sojourner, a labor economist at the University
of Minnesota. “It is beyond their control and no
fault of their own.”
In Florida, applications for unemployment
benefits nearly tripled last week to 505,000,
the second-highest total behind much-larger
California’s 534,000. Florida has had trouble
processing many of its applications. Its figure
suggests that the state is finally clearing a
backlog of filings from jobless workers.
In Michigan, 17% of the state’s workforce is
now receiving unemployment aid, the largest
proportion in the country. It is followed by
Rhode Island at 15%, Nevada at 13.7% and
Georgia at 13.6%.