COVID hit the economy last year like a category five hurricane, blasting away more than 22 million jobs, upending entire industries, and exposing deep inequities in pay and working conditions. The upheaval is dramatically reshaping the jobs market, leading many Americans to reconsider their careers.
No two ways about it: The April jobs report was extremely disappointing. And itâs likely to heat up the debate, now preoccupying the White House, over whether government policy might be subtly discouraging unemployed people from returning to work.
Economists and analysts had been expecting around a million jobs to be added on net in April, given the rising share of vaccinated Americans and relaxation of restrictions on business. Instead, employers created a measly 266,000 positions, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported recently. Job growth for March was revised downward, too.
The size of the jobs deficit â the difference between how many jobs there are today vs. pre-pandemic â remains quite large, with employment in April still 8.2 million jobs, or 5.4%, below the peak from February 2020. If Aprilâs hiring pace were to continue indefinitely, it would take 2½ more years before we regained all the jobs we had pre-COVID (and we actually want more jobs than th
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