April 2020 employment report: Unemployment surged after a colossal layoff in April

Travis Medlock, owner of Little Shop of Ramen, inspected more than one empty row of benches in his restaurant in Mariposa, California, on April 29. During the coronavirus pandemic, Medlock now only received orders to leave.

People lined up to apply for unemployment benefits in Hialeah, Florida, after the state labor agency’s website struggled to keep up with the flow of claims in early April.

A pedestrian in San Francisco walks past the St. Francis Drake who rides on March 24. The governors from coast to coast told Americans not to leave home except for dire circumstances, and they ordered non-essential businesses to close their doors.

Cars line up at a food pantry around Utah Food Bank in West Valley City, Utah, on April 24. As job losses continue during the pandemic, more families seek food aid.

Someone walks through a closed window in the Bronx because all non-essential businesses in New York are ordered to close during a pandemic.

A man is given an unemployment form on April 8 at a vehicle collection point outside the John F. Kennedy Library in Hialeah, Florida.

A sign in downtown Seattle, pictured in March, called for a suspension of rent during the pandemic.

A food delivery worker crosses the street in Times Square New York on March 17. Food delivery workers become very important in the city after restaurants and bars close.

Elizabeth Ruiz, 7, posted a Post-It note that spelled “God Bless U” when she and her mother, Daylin Lemus, waited in a row of hundreds of cars at a food bank in Hyattsville, Maryland, on May 5. “This is the first food bank that we visited,” Lemus said. “My income is less than before, so we came in case the situation gets worse. I’m afraid the shops will run out of chicken. I have searched for two weeks and can’t find it anywhere.”

A sign at the 7-Eleven store in Dallas says “Now Hiring” when an employee in the store mops the floor in April.

A woman wearing a face mask walks past a message of support in front of The Anthem, a popular live music venue in Washington, on April 29.