Few Americans alive today have ever seen jobless numbers as bad as they are right now. Economists estimate that between 13 percent and 18 percent of US workers are unemployed — the highest rate since the Great Depression.
It’s tempting to see that figure as somewhat inevitable, the unfortunate but unavoidable cost of economic lockdown. It’s why Congress has prioritized shoring up unemployment insurance benefits.
But as a handful of European countries have shown, mass unemployment isn’t a given. It’s a policy choice.
In this video, we explain how and why the UK, Denmark, and the Netherlands chose a different path. With the help of economist Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute, we explore whether the US can still avoid millions more job losses.
You can find this video and all of Vox’s videos on YouTube, including our coverage of the coronavirus. And if you’re interested in supporting our video journalism, you can become a member of the Vox Video Lab on YouTube.
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