Unemployment rate rises to 4.4% for March

Credit: Calculated Risk, annotated by Chemjobber

News from the Bureau of Labor Statistics - note that the reference week was the week of March 12, prior to most stay-at-home orders:

Total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 701,000 in March, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.4 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The changes in these measures reflect the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and efforts to contain it. Employment in leisure and hospitality fell by 459,000, mainly in food services and drinking places. Notable declines also occurred in health care and social assistance, professional and business services, retail trade, and construction.  

This news release presents statistics from two monthly surveys. The household survey measures labor force status, including unemployment, by demographic characteristics. The establishment survey measures nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings by industry. Note that the March survey reference periods for both surveys predated many coronavirus-related business and school closures that occurred in the second half of the month.

For the chemical manufacturing subsector, in February 2020, 850,400 people were employed. In March 2020, 847,400, a loss of 3000 jobs. Note that this number does not represent chemists only, rather employees of companies in the chemical manufacturing subsector.