Four causes for alarm in the US jobs figures – and one possible reason for hope

More than 20m Americans lost their jobs in April - and Friday's report suggests there might be much more trouble ahead

• Jobs figures: April worst month since Great Depression

Friday was a dark day for the US economy. The labor department announced more than 20 million people lost their jobs in April as the coronavirus shut down much of the economy.

Here are five key takeaways from a report that will enter the history books as the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

This was the #JobsReport everyone was fearing & for good reason: 20M jobs lost. For African Americans unemployment rose to 16.7% & a similar jump for Whites to 14.2%.

This gives a historically low ratio of 1.3. Of course that means it took a pandemic to get these rates closer. pic.twitter.com/XPIG57BpJi

Sometimes it's better to not post anything at all