An American Peculiarity: The US Is The Only Country In Which Jobs Are Being Destroyed So Quickly

More than 6.6 million people filed new claims for US unemployment benefits last week, the Labor Department said Thursday, bringing the total to almost 10 million claims in the last two weeks. The speed and scale of the job losses is unprecedented.

Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, New York Times, March 30, 2020:

Jobs Aren't Being Destroyed This Fast Elsewhere. Why Is That?

The coronavirus pandemic is laying bare structural deficiencies in America's social programs. The relief package passed by Congress last week ... leaves critical problems untouched. ...

In just one week, from March 15 to March 21, 3.3 million workers filed for unemployment insurance. [There were twice as many claims this past week.] According to some projections, the unemployment rate might rise as high as 30 percent in the second quarter of 2020.

This dramatic spike in jobless claims is an American peculiarity. In almost no other country are jobs being destroyed so fast. Why? Because throughout the world, governments are protecting employment. Workers keep their jobs, even in industries that are shut down. The government covers most of their wage through direct payments to employers. Wages are, in effect, socialized for the duration of the crisis.

Instead of safeguarding employment, America is relying on beefed-up unemployment benefits to shield laid-off workers from economic hardship. To give just one example, in both the United States and Britain, the government is asking restaurant workers to stay home. But in Britain, workers are receiving 80 percent of their pay (up to £2,500 a month, or $3,125) and are guaranteed to get their job back once the shutdown is over. In America, the workers are laid off; they must then file for unemployment insurance and wait for the economy to start up again before they can apply for a new job, and if all goes well, sign a new contract and resume working. ...

Losing one's job is anxiety inducing. Applying for unemployment benefits is burdensome. The unemployment system risks being swamped soon by tens of millions of claims. Although some businesses may rehire their workers once the shutdown is over, others will have disappeared. ... In Europe, people will be able to return to work, as if they had been on a long, government-paid leave. ...

This situation for laid-off workers would be bad enough if it were not aggravated by a second American peculiarity. As they are losing their jobs, many workers are also losing their employer-provided health insurance — and now find themselves faced with the Kafkaesque task of obtaining coverage on their own. ...

There are reports that people have already died of Covid-19 because they refused to go to the hospital, worried about bills, or because they were denied treatment for lack of insurance. ,,,

The bill passed last week does nothing to reduce co-pays, deductibles or premiums on the insurance exchanges; nor does it reduce the price of COBRA. The next bill should introduce a Covidcare for All program. This federal program would guarantee access to Covid-19 care at no cost to all U.S. residents — no matter their employment status, age or immigration status. Fighting the pandemic starts with eradicating the spread of the virus, which means that everybody must be covered.