Your Daily Roundup for May 8th

Good morning. As the COVID-19 pandemic takes a toll on the U.S. economy, our team at Future Majority is tracking the latest updates: 

The unemployment rate has hit nearly 15%

At a staggering 14.7% of Americans unemployed, the U.S. has hit the worst rate since the Great Depression. 

The drop is astounding when considering that the unemployment rate was only 3.5% this February -- a rapid and broad decline that is devastating the country. 

Source: New York Times

20.5 million Americans lost their jobs in April:

The Labor Department statistics out today show that 20.5 million Americans lost their jobs last month -- greatly exceeding the 8.7 million lost in the 2009 recession. Unemployment hit its highest point at 10% 11 years ago.

Experts say that the reports only underreport the real totals.  

The unemployment rate was especially devastating for Black and Latinx Americans:

The unemployment rate for black Americans climbed to 16.7% and to 18.9% among Hispanic or Latino workers. This comes after historic gains made in employment rates over the past several years.