New York Mayor Bill de Blasio pleaded with the US government for more help in expectation of a surge in COVID-19 cases next week, as new statistics emerged confirming that hundreds of thousands of people across the country have lost their jobs.
US employers cut 701,000 jobs last month, ending a record 113 straight months of employment growth, as a patchwork of state-ordered closures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus began forcing businesses to shed employees, the Labor Department said. In the last two weeks, nearly 1 million workers have filed for jobless benefits.
“What we are watching in real time is the greatest bloodletting in the American labor market since the Great Depression,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM in Austin, Texas.
De Blasio, mayor of the most-populous US city, appeared on morning television shows on Friday to call for more federal help. He is asking for 1,000 nurses, 150 doctors and 300 respiratory therapists as the number of COVID-19 cases in the city is expected to rise sharply next week.
"I think somehow in Washington, there's an assumption (that) there's weeks to prepare," de Blasio said on MSNBC. "There's not weeks anymore. It is days now."