US job losses mount as economic pain deepens worldwide

Christopher Rugaber | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 7 months AGO

Cameron Webb, an employee with McLane Company, makes a delivery to a Family Dollar in Dallas, Wednesday, April 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

A family wears mask as they walk under the Lumiere Cinema at the Music Hall in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Wednesday, April 15, 2020. The world's biggest economy began issuing one-time payments this week to tens of millions of people as part of its $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package, with adults receiving up to $1,200 each and $500 per child to help them pay the rent or cover other bills. The checks will be directly deposited into accounts or mailed to households in the coming weeks, depending on how people filed their tax returns. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

A Thai family of four, wearing face masks travel in a motorbike in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, April 16, 2020. A month-long state of emergency remain enforced in Thailand to allow its government to impose stricter measures to control the coronavirus that has infected hundreds of people in the Southeast Asian country. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

Pallbearers wearing full PPE suits lower in the grave the casket containing the remains of Benedict Somi Vilakasi for his burial ceremony at the Nasrec Memorial Park outside Johannesburg Thursday, April 16, 2020. Vilakasi, a Soweto coffee shop manager, died of Covid-19 infection in a Johannesburg hospital Sunday April 12 2020. South Africa is under a strict five-week lockdown in a effort to fight the Coronavirus pandemic.(AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Family and friends observe social distancing during the funeral ceremony for Benedict Somi Vilakasi at the Nasrec Memorial Park outside Johannesburg Thursday, April 16, 2020. Vilakasi, a Soweto coffee shop manager, died of COVID-19 infection in a Johannesburg hospital Sunday April 12 2020. South Africa is under a strict five-week lockdown in a effort to fight the Coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

A doctor holds a plastic bag full of swab specimen collected from journalists during lockdown to control the spread of the new coronavirus in Mumbai, India, Thursday, April 16, 2020. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday extended the world's largest coronavirus lockdown to head off the epidemic's peak, with officials racing to make up for lost time. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

An Indian laborer carries a rice bag after they were unloaded from trains to store at at Food Corporation of India (FCI) warehouse during lockdown in Jammu, India, Thursday, April 16, 2020. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday extended the world's largest coronavirus lockdown to head off the epidemic's peak, with officials racing to make up for lost time. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

Various designs of handmade face masks named "Sukamas (Yokosuka mask)" are shown in Yokosuka, near Tokyo, Thursday, April 16, 2020. With the spread of new coronavirus infection continuing, the Association for Community Development of Lifelong Learning started selling the masks on April 1 in order to deliver to as many people as possible. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

People wearing face masks to protect against coronavirus, ride a suburban train near Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 16, 2020. Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered most Russians to stay off work until the end of April as part of a partial economic shutdown to stymie the spread of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Victor Berezkin)

Residents wearing masks against the new coronavirus pass by government propaganda posters featuring Tiananmen Gate in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on Thursday, April 16, 2020. Top Chinese officials secretly determined they were likely facing a pandemic from a new coronavirus in mid-January, ordering preparations even as they downplayed it in public. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A man with a protective mask walks at usually crowded terrace at lunch time at Tokyo's Odaiba district Thursday, April 16, 2020, in Tokyo. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency last week for Tokyo and some other prefectures to ramp up defenses against the spread of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A man wearing a mask and gloves as a precaution against the spread of the new coronavirus drives a taxi in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, April 15, 2020. Cuban authorities are requiring the use of masks for anyone outside their homes. (AP Photo / Ramon Espinosa)

The Mulberry Street Pizzeria is seen open for delivery only in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Wednesday, April 15, 2020. The world's biggest economy began issuing one-time payments this week to tens of millions of people as part of its $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package, with adults receiving up to $1,200 each and $500 per child to help them pay the rent or cover other bills. The checks will be directly deposited into accounts or mailed to households in the coming weeks, depending on how people filed their tax returns. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

People keep their distance as they exercise outside of a closed La Jolla beach Wednesday, April 15, 2020, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The ranks of Americans thrown out of work by the coronavirus ballooned Thursday to at least 22 million in an unprecedented collapse that has fueled widening protests and propelled President Donald Trump’s push to relax the nation’s social distancing guidelines.

Trump planned to announce new recommendations later in the day to allow states to reopen, despite warnings from business leaders and governors that more testing and protective gear are needed first.

The government said 5.2 million more people applied for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the four-week total to about 22 million out of a U.S. work force of roughly 159 million — easily the worst stretch of U.S. job losses on record. The losses amount to about 1 in 7 workers.

Some economists said the unemployment rate could reach 20% in April, the highest since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

While some leaders and citizens around the U.S. have called on government to reopen stores, factories and schools — especially in rural areas and other parts of the country that have not seen major outbreaks — health authorities and many politicians warned that returning to normal is a distant goal and that lifting restrictions too soon could allow the virus to come storming back.

The decision of when and how to ease up rests not with the White House but with state and local leaders, who imposed the mandatory lockdowns and other restrictions over the past month.

Mayor Bill de Blasio of hard-hit New York City, with more than one-third of the nation's coronavirus deaths, was among those urging caution.

“Everyone wants our economy to restart ... but there has to be a really clear understanding,” he said. "If we can’t provide the basics for our people, then you can kiss your recovery goodbye.”

The outbreak has infected more than 2 million people worldwide and killed approximately 140,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, though the true numbers are believed to be much higher. The death toll in the U.S. topped 31,000, with over 600,000 confirmed infections.

The World Health Organization’s European chief said optimism that the spread of the virus is declining in Italy, Spain and France has been tempered by the knowledge that it is rising or remaining at a high level in Britain, Russia and Turkey.

“The storm clouds of this pandemic still hang heavily over the European region,” Dr. Hans Kluge said.

The economic fallout, meanwhile, escalated around the world.

In France, Amazon suspended operations after a court ruled it wasn’t doing enough to protect its workers in the country. The online retailer has six warehouses in France. In Britain, a government survey found that a quarter of companies had suspended business. Cargo traffic at Europe's huge port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands sank more than 9% in the first quarter.

In the U.S., the government said home-building collapsed in March, with housing starts tumbling 22.3% from a month ago. A day earlier, the U.S. reported that American industrial output shriveled in March, registering its biggest decline since the nation demobilized in 1946 at the end of World War II. Retail sales fell by an unprecedented 8.7%, with April expected to be much worse.

Layoffs in the U.S. are spreading well beyond stores, restaurants and hotels, reaching white-collar professionals such as software programmers, legal assistants and other office workers.

Many European countries have likewise seen heavy job losses, but the social safety nets there are stronger. Government subsidy programs in places like Germany and France are keeping millions of people on payrolls instead of letting them go onto the unemployment rolls.

The International Monetary Fund said fallout from what it calls the “Great Lockdown” will be the most devastating since the Depression. That has made leaders all the more anxious to send people back to work and school and to rebuild devastated economies.

Italy’s hard-hit region of Lombardy is pushing to relaunch manufacturing on May 4, the day that the national lockdown is set to lift. Regional officials are considering ordering companies to stagger opening hours to avoid cramming public transportation.

But Italy’s deputy economic development minister, Stefan Buffagni, called the plan premature: “Going in a random order risks fueling confusion among citizens and businesses.”

Britain, with over 13,000 dead, was set Thursday to extend a nationwide lockdown for several more weeks.

In the U.S., governors are facing vocal, and in some cases large, protests over their decisions to keep businesses closed, with demonstrators complaining that their livelihoods are being destroyed.

An estimated 3,000 to 4,000 people turned out Wednesday to protest the Michigan governor’s restrictions, police broke up a demonstration in North Carolina that resulted in one arrest, and a rally was scheduled in Virginia on Thursday. Protests have also taken place in Oklahoma and Kentucky.

"This arbitrary blanket spread of shutting down businesses, about putting all of these workers out of business, is just a disaster. It’s an economic disaster for Michigan,” said protester Meshawn Maddock.

In Michigan's northern Leelanau County, Sheriff Mike Borkovich said: “People are frantic to get back to work. They have been very edgy."

Troubling data indicate the worst has yet to come in many parts of the world.

Japan’s prime minister announced he would expand a state of emergency to the entire country, rather than just urban areas, as the virus continued to spread. Japan has the world's oldest population, and the elderly are especially vulnerable to the coronavirus.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged stepped-up preparations in Africa, warning that the continent “could end up suffering the greatest impacts.”

In Zimbabwe, where food was scarce even before the outbreak, police raided a market, torching 3 tons of fresh fruit and vegetables and scattering farmers who had violated travel restrictions to try to sell their crops.

–––

Perry reported from Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed.

–––

Follow AP coverage of the pandemic at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak