The U.S. unemployment rate is now 14.7 percent. All across the country, small businesses are folding. And markets are rallying. EricLevitz writes
No society, no jobs, no problem! Photo: Getty Images Nearly one in five American workers have lost their jobs since mid-March. The official unemployment rate in the United States is now 14.7 percent — the highest since the Great Depression — according to Friday’s jobs report. And that figure does not account for the past two weeks of historic job losses; the actual rate is likely closer to 20 percent by now.
The bulls’ case goes roughly like this: For years now, America’s corporate sector has been preparing for an economy fueled by the consumption of white-collar shut-ins, the labor of disempowered service workers, and the human-proofing of various industrial processes — without quite realizing that it was doing so.
These are tough times for businesses that require lots of human beings to labor in tight-knit and/or public spaces in order to function . But the digitalization of retail and automation of warehouses have reduced the number of firms that depend on people working in densely-packed “meatspace.” And COVID-19 can’t be contracted via computer virus.
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