5 charts that show how the coronavirus recession is slamming the most vulnerable workers

People who lost their jobs wait in line to file for unemployment following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at an Arkansas Workforce Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on April 6, 2020.REUTERS/Nick Oxford

• The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on the US economy, with nearly 13 million fewer jobs in July than in February.
• Workers in more vulnerable groups, like those without a high-school diploma and those working in certain lower-wage industries, have been hit especially hard.
• These groups — and the US economy in general — are also especially in need of a stronger safety net, which the government stopped providing at the end of July when large parts of the stimulus package from March expired.
• Congress has adjourned until September with no agreement, although President Trump signed an unemployment directive of questionable legality.
• We assembled five charts that show how the most vulnerable workers have been disproportionately affected by the crisis.

The coronavirus pandemic has devastated the US economy. Despite three months of relatively good jobs growth, nearly 13 million fewer Americans had a job in July than in February, before the outbreak began.

And some of the country's most vulnerable workers have been hit especially hard by the coronavirus recession.

Less-educated workers and employees in lower-wage industries and occupations historically have found themselves in far more precarious economic circumstances, as have workers of color, but those trends have been exacerbated in the current crisis, with those groups facing even more dire employment situations than their more-educated, higher-wage, and white peers.

A much-needed lifeline for all workers, but especially these vulnerable groups, has been cut off with the end-of-July expiration of expanded unemployment insurance payments from the stimulus bill Congress passed in March. Millions of Americans receiving unemployment payments now face a drastic decline in their income, which could have serious economic consequences as bills come due and spending slows down.

Congress has adjourned until early September without passing a replacement plan, while President Donald Trump signed an executive action attempting to partially extend the benefits using previously-allocated funding, although it is not clear if or when supplemental unemployment benefits would go into effect.

The following five charts illustrate how the pandemic and the economic chaos it caused have especially impacted workers in groups that were already more vulnerable before the crisis: