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.
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