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After July jobs report showed biggest increase in employment in nearly a year, Biden administration urges Americans to get vaccinated to stave off health and economic threats posed by the Delta variant .
“[We] can’t let this get out of hand, ”US Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said in an interview with Yahoo Finance Live. “We are currently at some fragile point in our economy. Things are moving in the right direction. People are traveling. Tourism is picking up. Manufacturing is underway. Job growth is on the move – and reversing it would be difficult. ”
The non-farm payroll increased by 943,000 in July and the unemployment rate fell to 5.4%. Despite the report exceeding expectations, there are still fears that the Delta variant could slow the economic recovery if workers are left on the sidelines due to health or childcare issues. Some companies have already delayed their return to the office and local mask warrants have been reinstated in parts of the country.
Walsh told Yahoo Finance that he and President Biden support companies requiring COVID-19 vaccines for their employees.
Improved unemployment benefits expire in early September, although many states have already abandoned the $ 300 weekly increase. Walsh said he didn’t believe the benefits discouraged people from returning to work.
According to the Century Foundation, about 7.5 million Americans could lose their unemployment benefits when pandemic programs expire. Millions of self-employed and temporary workers will no longer be eligible for assistance.
Biden said he expects the Enhanced Perks to expire and there hasn’t been much talk of expanding them further on Capitol Hill.
“The Delta variant could change a lot of things. I mean, we saw the president extend the moratorium on evictions the other day. If we didn’t see spikes in the Delta variant, he wouldn’t have to. “said Walsh. when asked about expiring programs.
“We’re going to kind of watch this thing, watch this thing very closely and see where we are day by day, week by week,” he added.
While Walsh said he hopes to see more job gains in September, he said reopening schools will give the job market a bigger boost than benefits expire.
“The variant could do a bit of damage there,” Walsh said. “The past three months have been really strong and solid. Last month there were 938,000 jobs [revised up from 850,000]. This month, it’s 945,000 jobs. These are good months. These are good reports. Hopefully to keep that momentum going we just need to keep an eye out for this variant and make sure we don’t see spikes all over the country. “
Jessica smith is chief political correspondent for Yahoo Finance, based in Washington, DC Follow her on Twitter at @ JessicaASmith8.
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