Another Month of Disappointing Jobs Growth Delivers a Lump of Coal to America’s Workers
December 11, 2021 | West Virginia
Key Takeaways:
- Jobs growth in November 2021 dropped by over 60 percent relative to October and fell far short of expectations. Actual job growth was 210,000 versus an expected 573,000.
- The unemployment rate fell from 4.6 percent to 4.2 percent, but the employment-to-population ratio remains significantly below its pre-pandemic level, and the labor force participation rate has been nearly stagnant over the past year. Early retirements are not the only reason for the low rate.
- There are nearly twice as many long-term unemployed individuals today compared to February 2020, suggesting that the labor market recovery may continue to be a slog, especially in the face of policy headwinds from the Big Government Socialism Bill that would discourage work and job creation.
With Americans already struggling with multi-decade high inflation eroding their paychecks and shortages at the store complicating their Christmas shopping, today’s jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will not bring tidings of comfort and joy. After months of disappointment, jobs growth in November fell by over 60 percent relative to October, with the U.S. economy only creating 210,000 net new jobs—far short of the expectation by professional forecasters of 573,000. America is still 7.8 million jobs short of the pre-pandemic trend, and if the recovery were to continue at the current pace, the labor market would stay permanently below that trajectory. At the modestly better but still quite anemic pace of recovery since the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act in March 2021, payroll employment would not fully recover until late 2023. The recovery is also proving quite uneven across different industries. For example, the number of financial activities jobs has more than fully recovered and sits at 30,000 above the pre-pandemic February 2020 level, while manufacturing is still down by 253,000 jobs. The number of retail jobs actually dropped by 20,000 last month despite the arrival of the holiday shopping season…. (Excerpts from America First Policy Institute)
