by Calculated Risk on 5/08/2020 08:43:00 AM

From the BLS:

Total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 20.5 million in April, and the unemployment rate rose to 14.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The changes in these measures reflect the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it. Employment fell sharply in all major industry sectors, with particularly heavy job losses in leisure and hospitality.
...
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for February was revised down by 45,000 from +275,000 to +230,000, and the change for March was revised down by 169,000 from -701,000 to -870,000. With these revisions, employment changes in February and March combined were 214,000 lower than previously reported.
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image.

The first graph shows the year-over-year change in total non-farm employment since 1968.

In April, the year-over-year change was -19.420 million jobs.

Total payrolls decreased by 20.5 million in April.

Payrolls for February and March were revised down 214 thousand combined.

The second graph shows the job losses from the start of the employment recession, in percentage terms.

The current employment recession is by far the worst recession since WWII in percentage terms, and the worst in terms of the unemployment rate.

The third graph shows the employment population ratio and the participation rate.

The Labor Force Participation Rate decreased to 60.2% in April. This is the percentage of the working age population in the labor force.  

The Employment-Population ratio decreased to 51.3% (black line).

I'll post the 25 to 54 age group employment-population ratio graph later.

The fourth graph shows the unemployment rate.

The unemployment rate increased in April to 14.7%.

This was close to consensus expectations of 21,000,000 jobs lost, and February and March were revised down by 214,000 combined.

This was the worst employment report ever, and the report for May will also be horrible. I'll have much more later ...