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With the gradual reopening of the states in US, the job losses are gradually decreasing but till date, over 36.8 million people have lost their job in the US. Officials are looking into ways to administer steps to get the economy back on track.

Just last week, 2.43 million Americans were laid off work which is lesser than what has happened in the last few weeks but still quite a substantial amount.

Other reports have suggested that the economic downfall has also impacted the US housing sales last month along with the decline in the manufacturing as well.

The initial claims for the unemployment has already passed the peak hit in March but the economists have clarified saying that the rate of unemployment is a lot worse than what the official figures suggest.

“The dramatic spike in unemployment claims is trending down, but it still completely overshadows any precedent,” said Kate Bahn, director of Labor Market Policy at the Center for Equitable Growth.

To further help stabilise the economy, the Democrats in Congress have even appealed to the senate to pass a $3.3 trillion spending measure which has been approved by the House of Representatives. The same measure was suggested to further revitalise the economy back on track. But, the bill was rejected by the Trump administration while they have been consistently urging the states to start reopening.

The Covid-19 pandemic has already claimed over 93,000 lives in the US and has infected over 1.6 million others, as per the reports from John Hopkins University.

Partisan split

While the weekly jobless claims are gradually reducing, they are still a lot more in comparison to what was reported during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.

Popular economist Joel Naroff said that any individual who thinks that 2.5 million weekly reports of unemployment are anything but disastrous is joking at this point. He further insinuated that the economy is currently in the midst of a second round of layoffs.

The latest weekly numbers that were reported doesn’t include the 2.22 million people who applied for the federal program that caters to the self employed workers and the contractors who don’t fall under the traditional benefits.

Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker also pushed for the Heroes Act which sanctioned $1 trillion for the state and local governments, hazard pay for the healthcare workers, funding for the hospitals and even the relief packages for the smaller businesses.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, on the contrary, rejected the bill stating it as “partisan” and the fact that the officials will have to take a closer look into the same to further pass it.

“Instead of telling laid-off workers to pause, Leader McConnell and the Senate GOP need to come to the negotiating table to help deliver the relief to protect lives and livelihoods,” said Pelosi.

Plunge in Home Sales

As we did mention before, US experienced a plunge in the home sales. The federal government has rolled out trillions in new liquidity to ensure that the markets function as normal. The economists have suggested that the additional government spending is likely going to help spur a better recovery.

Central Bank’s Chair, Jerome Powell during a video conference with the community leaders warned them of the uncertain economic status of the country. He further said that the virus further complicates the outlook in the end.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) in US reported that the existing home sales, which accounts for one of the biggest parts of the economy plummeted in April, which was the first full month of the Covid-19 lockdown.

But, the realtors are optimistic that they’d be able to reel back with the recovery once the economy reopens.

The plunge in the home sales was reported to be 17.8% last month, gradually dropping all across the country.

The NAR’s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun reported that even with the plummeting percentage, the year on year price will skyrocket by 7.4% in the days to come.

By Somapika Dutta