US employers shed 701,000 jobs in March, unemployment jumped to 4.4%, as coronavirus ravages economy

The U.S. economy lost 701,000 jobs in March, snapping a decade-long record of employment growth, as strict measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic shuttered businesses and forced Americans to stay at home.

It was the first decline in payrolls since September 2010, and the steepest since March 2009, in the midst of the Great Recession.

The unemployment rate jumped to 4.4 percent, up from a half-century low of 3.5 percent in February.

Economists surveyed by Refinitiv had forecast a payroll decline of 100,000 and the unemployment rate to rise to 3.8 percent.

Restaurants, bars, hotels, airlines, cruise lines, automakers and entertainment venues have been hit hard by the pandemic as a growing number of jurisdictions have ordered the closure of nonessential businesses and directed residents to stay at home.

But the Labor Department’s employment report, which is based on surveys conducted in the early weeks of the month, when large swaths of the economy had not yet shut down, does not fully reflect the depth of the economic calamity that the virus outbreak has inflicted. In the final two weeks of the month, 10 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits, a stunning sign of the scope of the economic crash.