Fewer than half of working Americans will have a paycheck in May

[Demovictory9]

Fewer than half of working Americans will have a paycheck in May as devastating coronavirus layoffs persist, economist says

https://www.businessinsider.com/layoffs-coronavirus-less-than-half-american-workers-paycheck-wage-may-2020-4

The millions of Americans who have lost their jobs in recent weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic will have a devastating effects on the economy going forward as workers are left without pay.

Losses in April alone could push the unemployment rate to 16%, according to James Knightley, chief international economist at ING. If another 10 million Americans file jobless claims in May, that would push the unemployment rate to 22%, he said.

"Thankfully this is below the 24.9% peak experienced in 1933, but we have to remember that one third of Americans aged 18-65 are not classified as employed or unemployed – they are students, early retirement, homemakers, carers or sick," Knightly wrote in a Thursday note.

"This leads us to yet another sobering statistic – that less than half of working age Americans will be earning a wage next month," he said.

[SheltieLover]

1. Great reason to keep dishing $$ to corporations & not families! 🤬

Fkn repukes.

[DrToast]

2. They screwed up their own headline

Fewer than half of working Americans will have a paycheck in May as devastating coronavirus layoffs persist, economist says

"This leads us to yet another sobering statistic – that less than half of working age Americans will be earning a wage next month," he said.

These two are not the same thing. Not everyone that is of working age is part of the labor force.

I'm not trying to diminish the horribleness of the situation, but the economist did not say what the headline suggests.

[Demovictory9]

3. true

[customerserviceguy]

4. Am I doing the math wrong here?

If peak unemployment in the Great Depression was about 25%, wouldn't that mean three in four Americans were earning a paycheck? Since we're nowhere near that per the article in the OP, how does that mean that more than half of Americans will not get a paycheck?

[progree]

5. The headline is wrong, the article is talking about working AGE Americans

which the article seems to define as age 18 to 65. Whatevs.

Anyway, not everyone age 18 to 65 is either working or unemployed, according to the official statistics.

To be considered unemployed in the official unemployment statistic U-3, one must be jobless AND have looked for worked sometime in the past 4 weeks.

So people not working by choice (students, home-makers, early retirees, the idle rich) or who have taken a breather from looking for work for more than 4 weeks in this horrid economy are just not counted (they are in some other BLS statistics, but not in the official unemployment statistic U-3 that is cited in mainstream media headlines).

By the way, the headline official unemployment statistic that is cited in news headlines is ages 16+ including centenarians (i.e. no upper limit on age). But the BLS has breakdowns of this by various age groups.