U.S. unemployment rate hits 14.7% for April, report

The U.S. unemployment rate in April climbed to 14.7%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.

The rate is the highest since the Great Depression that ended in 1993.

The report also show the U.S. economy lost 20.5 million jobs last month.

The rising number is the result of the coronavirus that has crippled much of the U.S. economy, with non-essential businesses shutters for roughly seven straight weeks. 

The new set of jobs data is consider the worst since record-keeping began in 1948. It also shows that nearly all of the job growth in the 11 years since the Great Recession ended had vanished in one month, according to the Associated Press.