Millions of Americans Are Unemployed Despite Record Jobs



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The number of jobs available since May has outnumbered Americans looking for work. One of the factors is the mismatch between where people want to work and the industries that hire.

The hardest-hit industries have yet to regain their pre-pandemic levels, when 63% of Americans were in the workforce. In July, there were 5.7 million fewer jobs, on a seasonally adjusted basis, than in February 2020, according to data from the Ministry of Labor.

The number of people trying to re-enter the workforce has rebounded from the early days of the pandemic. The share of adults working or looking for work edged up from a low of 60.2% in April last year to 61.7% in July.

Leisure and hospitality workers saw the highest hiring rates and increased weekly earnings as the easing of restrictions allowed restaurants to reopen and resume travel. However, higher cases of the Delta variant could loom above the rebound.

Manufacturing hiring jumped last year and outpaced overall hiring. While more Americans make things, fewer Americans sell products in stores, with retail hiring lagging behind overall rates last year.

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