[ad_1]
WASHINGTON (AP) – The US labor market surged in February. It has raised hopes that the deployment of viral vaccines, the distribution of federal aid, and the increasing willingness and ability of consumers to get out and spend will reinvigorate the economy as the weather warms.
Employers have added 379,000 jobs, the government said on Friday, the highest number since October and far exceeding economists’ forecasts. The unemployment rate, which fell to 6.2%, has now fallen almost every month since it peaked at 14.8% in April of last year after the pandemic broke out in the United States and inflicted breathtaking job losses.
Shut down for much of last year, the economy has gradually reopened as more people are vaccinated and fewer are infected. The number of new confirmed coronavirus cases has fallen to an average of less than 60,000 per day from nearly 250,000 in early January, according to Johns Hopkins University.
A government aid package late last year also delivered $ 600 checks to most adults, adding to an even bigger economic bailout last spring. President Joe Biden is looking to give households another boost with a $ 1.9 trillion relief package that would add benefits to the unemployed and send $ 1,400 to most families.
“Improving health conditions, expanding vaccine distribution and a generous fiscal stimulus will form a powerful cocktail that will bring real (economic) growth to 7% in 2021,” reversing the 3.5% drop in last year, said Gregory Daco and Lydia Boussour of Oxford Economics in a study. Note. They expect the economy to create an average of about 580,000 jobs per month this year.
Here are five takeaways from the February jobs report:
RESTAURANTS REBOND
No sector of the economy has suffered more damage from the pandemic recession than the leisure and hospitality sector. Now that more bars, restaurants and hotels are reopening at full capacity, this industry has regained many of its lost jobs.
In February, the leisure and hospitality industry created 355,000 jobs, or more than 90% of the total gain in the economy. The added jobs included 286,000 in restaurants and bars alone.
Many of those jobs are returning as California and Texas – the two most populous states – more fully reopen their economies, along with other states. Yet last year’s job losses in leisure and hospitality have been so deep that the sector is still down 3.5 million jobs from its pre-pandemic level. Even if February’s frenetic pace could be sustained, it would take 10 more months for the leisure and hospitality industry to regain its pre-pandemic employment levels. And that doesn’t even include the additional jobs this industry would have created over the past year under normal circumstances.
AN EARLY SPRING
Job growth in February was about twice as high as economists expected. And the scenery was better in the rearview mirror as well. The government’s revised estimates added 38,000 net jobs for December and January combined.
Most economists also ignored a dose of bad news in Friday’s report: a loss of 61,000 construction jobs that was likely a temporary consequence of freezing winter temperatures and power outages in Texas and elsewhere. And the cut of 86,000 government jobs in February reflected, in part, technical problems with accounting for school closures and reopens in the face of the pandemic.
A YEAR LOST
A year ago, the pandemic had yet to hit the United States hard. As a result, data from last month illustrates just how badly the virus has damaged the job market in 12 months. The comparisons to the pre-pandemic days are ugly.
Despite last month’s impressive gain, the economy is still down by around 9.5 million jobs compared to February 2020. And the proportion of adults who are working or looking for work – the so-called rate of labor force participation – was 61.4% in February, down sharply. against 63.3% a year earlier. This proportion is now close to what it was in the mid-1970s, before the massive influx of women into the American labor market. In addition, the unemployment rate of 6.2% in February, although down significantly from last spring, remains high from 3.5% a year earlier.
RACIAL INEQUALITY
Job growth in February did nothing to reduce chronic disparities between white Americans and minorities that reflect broader economic inequalities.
The unemployment rate for black Americans rose last month for the first time since April, from 9.2% in January to 9.9% in February. The number of African Americans who reported being employed fell by 164,000. And the number of those who reported unemployed rose by 129,000.
In contrast, unemployment fell slightly last month for whites (from 5.7% to 5.6%, a much lower rate than minorities) and for Hispanics (from 8.6% to 8.5% ).
GONE FOR GOOD
Employers have continued to remind workers they put on leave after the virus hit last year. But many jobs seem to be gone for good, and those who held those positions could remain unemployed indefinitely.
The number of Americans on temporary layoff fell from 517,000 last month to 2.2 million. At the same time, the ranks of the permanently unemployed remained stuck at 3.5 million, down just 6,000 from January. The losers of permanent jobs now outnumber the temporary unemployed every month since September.
[ad_2]
Source link