The coronavirus recession has slammed American workers at every education level, but it's hit the least educated the worst

• The coronavirus pandemic has thrown the US economy into chaos, with far fewer Americans working in July than in February.
• The recession has hit less-educated Americans especially hard.
• Unemployment rates for all levels of educational attainment remain near or above their Great Recession-era highs.

The coronavirus pandemic has thrown the US economy into chaos. Even after three months of record-high jobs growth, there were still nearly 13 million fewer Americans employed in July than in February.

The current downturn has slammed workers across the entire economy. Historically, higher educational attainment has been strongly tied to lower unemployment. Americans with at least a four-year college degree have tended to have the lowest unemployment rates, while workers without a high school diploma have had the highest.

That trend has continued through the pandemic, as can be seen in the chart below. While unemployment shot up to historically high levels for each educational group, rates were much higher among Americans with lower educational attainment.

This chart shows unemployment by level of educational attainment among Americans over age 25, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly jobs report. Although unemployment has fallen for each group from their postwar record highs in May, rates for workers without any college experience remain around their Great Recession-era highs, while rates for workers with at least some college are higher than their peaks a decade ago: