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Pentagon accuses Alibaba, Baidu and BYD, three of China's biggest companies, of supporting the Chinese military

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'We are rapidly running out of time': Watchdog sounds Social Security alarm after 22% cut confirmed for 2032

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Costco CEO Ron Vachris rose from forklift driver to the C-suite without a college degree: ‘Don’t chase a title’ is the career advice that got him there

1

Pentagon accuses Alibaba, Baidu and BYD, three of China's biggest companies, of supporting the Chinese military

2

'We are rapidly running out of time': Watchdog sounds Social Security alarm after 22% cut confirmed for 2032

3

Costco CEO Ron Vachris rose from forklift driver to the C-suite without a college degree: ‘Don’t chase a title’ is the career advice that got him there
Financeunemployment

Real unemployment rate soars past 24.9%—and the U.S. has now lost 33.5 million jobs

By
Lance Lambert
Lance Lambert
Former Real Estate Editor
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By
Lance Lambert
Lance Lambert
Former Real Estate Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 7, 2020, 8:46 AM ET

Around 3.2 million Americans filed initial unemployment claims in the week ending May 2, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. That brings the total unemployment claims over the past seven weeks to a staggering 33.5 million.

Before this seven-week stretch of 33.5 million initial jobless claims, there were already 7.1 million unemployed Americans as of March 13. When those figures are combined, it equals more than 40 million unemployed, or a real unemployment rate of 24.9%. That’s just under the Great Depression peak of an unemployment rate topped 25.6%.

While the 3.2 million initial unemployment claims are down from the prior week’s 3.8 million, they are still almost five times the previous record from October 1982 of 695,000 claims. That former record has been topped for seven weeks straight.

On Friday the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will release the April unemployment rate, which a White House advisor thinks could be between 16% to 20%. But this jobless rate will just be through mid-April and will exclude the 7 million jobless claims over the past two weeks. It is not until May that it will likely go above 20%.

And the BLS official unemployment rate may remain well under the real unemployment rate through this crisis. Only out-of-work Americans who are searching for new positions are categorized as unemployed. And many Americans are choosing to wait out the virus and stay-at-home order before starting their search.

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More must-read finance coverage from Fortune:

—Saving lives vs. saving the economy is a false tradeoff, economists say
—ExxonMobil’s CEO is banking on a return to normal, but most others aren’t so sure
—Cybercriminals adapt to coronavirus faster than the A.I. cops hunting them
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—Inside the chaotic rollout of the SBA’s PPP loan plan
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: Why the banks were ready for the financial impact of coronavirus

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About the Author
By Lance LambertFormer Real Estate Editor
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Lance Lambert is a former Fortune editor who contributes to the Fortune Analytics newsletter.

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