In U.S., a Quarter Million More Jobs Doesn’t Cut It
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the U.S. total jobs increase in November was +245,000. That would have been a decent enough number to report ‘back in the day’ when a coronavirus-like attack was unimaginable. But having gone through an unprecedented decline in employment in the Spring of this year, +245,000 is but a drop in the bucket compared to what’s needed to fully restore good health to the U.S. jobs market
The +245,000 number for November is down from the +610,000-figure recorded in October, which was itself considered disappointing. The extent of the problem is highlighted in Table 1. Between February and April, 20.5 million jobs disappeared in America. Since April, 10.7 million jobs have been reacquired; but that leaves the jobs-recovery ratio (or ‘claw-back’ ratio) at only 52.1%, or just slightly more than half. Hopes for a V-shaped recovery in the economy have been dashed.
Table 1
