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WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. employers added just 194,000 jobs in September, a second consecutive lukewarm gain and proof that the pandemic still has a grip on the economy, with many businesses struggling to fill millions of workers. ‘open jobs.
Friday’s Labor Department report also showed the unemployment rate fell sharply to 4.8% from 5.2% in August.
The economy is showing signs of the emergence of the trail of the delta variant of the coronavirus, with a confirmed decline in new COVID-19 infections, a slight upturn in restaurant traffic and consumers eager to spend.
But new infections remained high in early September, and employers are still struggling to find workers as many people who lost their jobs during the pandemic have yet to start looking. Supply chain bottlenecks have also worsened, slowing factories, limiting home builders and emptying some store shelves.
Many economists still believe that most of the estimated 3 million people who have lost their jobs and have stopped looking for work since the pandemic hit will resume their research as COVID subsides. It took years after the 2008-2009 recession, they note, for the proportion of people working or looking for work to return to pre-recession levels. The government does not count people as unemployed unless they are actively looking for a job.
Some of the factors that have left many unemployed on the sidelines may be starting to ease. According to a Census Bureau survey, for example, the number of people who are not working because they have to stay home to care for a child halved in September compared to June. That number had barely dropped last fall, when many schools remained closed and conducted virtual learning. New census figures suggest more parents, especially mothers, may have joined the workforce last month as the school year began and their children returned to school.
In addition, an August survey by the employment website Indeed found that the proportion of unemployed Americans who said they would like to find a job after the school year began had more than doubled compared to just two months earlier.
Still, there are signs that it may be too early to expect a flood of parents to re-enter the workforce. Lael Brainard, a member of the Fed’s board of governors, noted in a recent speech that the COVID-19 outbreaks in late September caused the closure of 2,000 schools for an average of six days in 39 states.
Several improved unemployment benefits ended in early September, including a federal supplement of $ 300 per week as well as programs that, for the first time, covered workers and those without a job for six months or more. So far, the end of these programs seems to have had little effect on the number of people looking for work.
Governors of about 25 states ended the $ 300 benefit before the nationwide expiration in September. Research by Goldman Sachs economists found that unemployed people who were looking for work were much more likely to take a job when their benefits ended. But the early cuts haven’t pushed people on the sidelines to start searching again, Goldman concluded.
Another reason workers are scarce is an increase in retirements among older and better-off workers whose home equity and equity portfolios have increased since the pandemic and who have managed to accumulate savings. . Goldman Sachs estimates that around 1.5 million people have retired, which would not have been the case before the pandemic wreaked havoc on the economy. Many of these people will likely stay in retirement, economists expect.
In the meantime, fear of COVID continues to sideline some potential job seekers, including those who previously worked in public services in restaurants, bars, hotels and retailers.
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