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US unemployment rises sharply

Global business news, with live guests and contributions from Asia and the USA.

The US unemployment rate in March rose to 4.4% from a 50-year low of 3.5% in February. We hear more from Chris Low at FHN Financial in New York. Google is now making available the analysis of location data from billions of Google users’ phones to help health authorities assess how coronavirus is spreading; we speak to the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's Zoe Thomas. Kai Rysdale from our sister programme Market Place in the US explains how the health of crews on the vital Mississippi river barges are being put at risk. An indigenous woman in a village deep in the Amazon rain forest has contracted coronavirus, the first case reported among Brazil’s more than 300 tribes; the Ö÷²¥´óÐã’s Brazil correspondent Daniel Gallas tells us more. If you wander the streets of even the biggest cities of the world at the moment you'll hear the sound of silence. For some scientists it's an opportunity to concentrate on things that usually, amidst the hubbub, can’t be heard. Dr Brian Baptie is the Head of Seismology at the British Geological Survey. Plus, in a world of lockdowns, staying in is the new going out. There's a new trend in so-called 'cloud clubbing', and the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's Nina Nanji checked out a virtual set by her cousin, DJ Ninja. And we're joined throughout the programme by Peter Ryan, he's based in Sydney as ABC's senior business correspondent. (Picture of an employment bureau by Tim Boyle for Getty Images).

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53 minutes

Broadcast

  • Sat 4 Apr 2020 00:06GMT

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