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Despite the drastic loss of jobs in the aftermath of spring 2020, there is sustained positive news when it comes to employment. The unemployment rate fell by 0.5% and more than 900,000 people joined the workforce. However, the country still has millions of jobs to replace the entire workforce before the pandemic in February 2020.
What is the change from month to month?
According to the Ministry of Labor, this is the evolution of job gains or losses and the overall unemployment rate since January 2020.
Unemployment rate in the United States and number of jobs created or lost
| Month | Unemployment rate | Non-agricultural wage bill |
| January 2020 | 3.5% | + 225,000 |
| February 2020 | 3.5% | |
| March 2020 | 4.4% | – 701,000 |
| april 2020 | 14.8% | – 20,500,000 |
| May 2020 | 13.3% | + 2,500,000 |
| june 2020 | 11.1% | + 4,800,000 |
| july 2020 | 10.2% | + 1,763,000 |
| August 2020 | 8.4% | + 1,370,000 |
| September 2020 | 7.8% | + 661,000 |
| October 2020 | 6.9% | + 638,000 |
| november 2020 | 6.7% | + 245,000 |
| december 2020 | 6.7% | – 140,000 |
| January 2021 | 6.3% | + 49,000 |
| February 2021 | 6.2% | + 379,000 |
| March 2021 | 6% | + 916,000 |
| April 2021 | 6.1% | + 266,000 |
| May 2021 | 5.8% | + 559,000 |
| June 2021 | 5.9% | + 850,000 |
| July 2021 | 5.4% | + 943,000 |
(Months in italics indicate overall job loss)
Why does the number of non-farm jobs fluctuate so much?
Basically, the job market is reducing opportunities as the country peaks in covid-19 cases. The initial huge drop in April was the result of the near total shutdown of the US economy, while the second low in December was the result of the UK’s Alpha variant which pushed cases up again. The third drop, in April this year, drove the job market into a panic, but now, with the adoption of vaccines by much of the adult population, it looks like the US economy is on the right track before winter.
Despite just over 50% of the U.S. population vaccinated, there has been a worrying increase in cases driven by the Delta variant of covid-19. The new variant is much more contagious than the previous variants. It forced some states to reimpose certain restrictions and others to impose vaccination mandates on federal workers. As the country heads into winter, where more of the population will be indoors, the risk of infection will be higher and this could threaten the economic recovery of the United States.
More progress in economic recovery. The adoption of a one-year US bailout in March has placed us well to face any challenges in 2021.https://t.co/fGbxog6x60
– Ronald Klain (@WHCOS) August 5, 2021
Why is the July job news so positive?
Some of the industries most affected by covid-19 have seen a fair number of jobs clawed back. the the leisure and hospitality sector saw 380,000 new positions filled. The education sector also hired 261,000 new people.
There were concerns that additional unemployment benefits would prevent people from getting new jobs, but that theory was overturned by subsequent employment reports in June and July.
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