It doesn't seem odd to me. This is an entirely unique recession, not brought on by the business cycle or a collapse in the financial sector but instead by public health restrictions that strike directly at the workers sampled in the U6 metric. When the Covid recession started there was little need to consult ANY official unemployment number, the drop was so precipitous that any or all or none would do.

What we have learned is the way this recession strikes at isolated employment sectors, low wage workers in restaurant and entertainment businesses, women who have shouldered disproportionate childcare duties, many of whom have dropped out of the workforce and no longer show on unemployment numbers. While many in the high wage sectors are doing well, perhaps better than before, the lower two quintiles are disproportionately suffering, many on the brink of losing housing and with huge rent bills run up during eviction moratoriums. Their precarious position is a ticking time bomb for the recovery.