Job Losses for 20.5 Million Americans Herald More Pain to Come

It took just one month for the labor market in the world’s largest economy to capsize. It will take longer for the damage to be fully realized.

In the harshest downturn for American workers in history, employers cut an unprecedented 20.5 million jobs in April, tripling the unemployment rate to 14.7%, the highest since the Great Depression era of the 1930s. And it’s only set to worsen in May, as cuts spread further into white-collar work.

“It’s devastating,” said Ryan Sweet, head of monetary policy research at Moody’s Analytics. “There’s someone behind each of these numbers. It’s going to ...