The labor-force participation rate fell to 60.2% -- the lowest since 1973 -- from 62.7%. Among prime-age men, those ages 25 to 54, it dropped to a record-low 86.4%.
Almost every industry was hit hard. Manufacturers cut 1.33 million positions and retailers 2.1 million. Even health care jobs fell by 1.44 million as non-Covid visits and elective procedures dried up or offices closed.
The job losses may also fan calls for a fourth round of fiscal aid from Congress on top of trillions of dollars already dispatched, even with signs many Americans are having difficulty tapping the funds. The Federal Reserve is likely to keep pumping money into the economy while leaving interest rates near zero for an extended period.
Trump -- who’s polling behind the presumptive Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden -- said Friday that the massive U.S. job losses from the coronavirus outbreak aren’t a surprise and that he shouldn’t be blamed for it.
“It’s totally expected, there’s no surprise,” he said on Fox News Channel, where he was being interviewed as the report was released. “Even the Democrats aren’t blaming me for that. What I can do is I can bring it back.”
While the pandemic has crushed economies around the world, job losses hurt more in the U.S. than in most other developed nations. That’s because about 160 million Americans get health insurance through employers, and without jobs, they could face steep monthly premiums or lose coverage entirely -- which may exacerbate the economic impact of Covid-19.
Harder Hit
The crisis hit harder for demographics including women and minorities, after they had benefited from the previous tightening of the labor market.
The jobless rate among women jumped to 15.5% from 4%, compared with a 9-point increase among men, to 13%. Among black and African Americans, the unemployment rate was 16.7%; it was 18.9% for Hispanics and Latinos, compared with 14.2% for white Americans.
The quality of jobs also declined, continuing a pre-virus trend. In April, 10.9 million people were working part-time even though they wanted to work a full workweek -- almost double the prior month -- signaling greater financial stress. That helped push up the so-called underemployment rate, which includes discouraged workers, to a record in data back to 1994.
How fast hiring resumes is critical to the strength of the overall recovery. Already, Uber Technologies Inc., Boeing Co. and U.S. Steel Corp. have announced sweeping layoffs, a sign companies are banking on a slow resumption of growth.