The extraordinary American mass unemployment which has persisted at the level of more than 30 million since early June, now appears to be rising again as the Payroll Protection Program loans expire for small businesses. Those loans were intended to allow companies to keep employees on payroll for up to three months while not having business revenue or work, and they are now expiring, as are the Pandemic Unemployment Benefits from the federal government.
Tracking data from the U.S. Census in progress, made public for economic planning purposes, indicate a roughly 5% loss in small business employment across the country during July. According to the investment firm Jeffries, in late June, 19% of American small businesses were closed, but in late July it is 24.5% of them. Among larger businesses mass layoffs, furloughs and early retirements announced during June and July by airlines, aircraft makers, commercial real estate chains, etc. are beginning actually to occur. The Federal Reserve’s weekly economic activity index has also been negative for the past two weeks.
