This is much worse than it needs to be because Trump has mishandled the COVID pandemic so badly and his henchmen in the US Senate refuse to take action to support the economic turmoil that persists because of it.
1.4 million Americans filed new unemployment claims last week. For 28 consecutive weeks, more people have filed for benefits than during the single worst week of the Great Recession.
Washington Post’s Heather Long: “Layoffs are still going on at a rapid pace. 1.4 million Americans filed a *new* UI or PUA unemployment claim last week — about the same as the prior two weeks.”
CNBC: “The total is still well above anything the U.S. has seen since before the crisis.”
26 million Americans are receiving some form of unemployment relief – over 18 times where we were a year ago.
Washington Post’s Heather Long: “**26 million people are on unemployment**”
Nearly 63 million unemployment claims have been filed since the pandemic began, far surpassing the total during the entire Great Recession.
Business Insider: “The nearly 63 million unemployment-insurance filings made throughout the coronavirus pandemic trounce the 37 million filings seen during the 18-month Great Recession.”
Job growth slowed significantly in August.
Axios: “The labor market is rebounding, but the pace of hiring has dropped off. The slowdown could be a sign of what’s to come: a long, sluggish job market recovery… President Trump has praised job gains in recent months, even though they have consistently slowed from June’s surprise 4.8 million jump.”
BLS: “Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 1.4 million in August, following increases of larger magnitude in the prior 3 months.”
Wall Street Journal: “The number of available jobs in the U.S. leveled off late this summer, the latest sign momentum in the labor market is easing six months after the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the U.S. The increase in the number of job postings, a real-time measure of labor-market activity, has slowed dramatically since late July, and last week stood about 20% below 2019 levels, according to data the job-search site Indeed.com shared with The Wall Street Journal.”
Fewer than half of jobs lost during the pandemic have come back, with 11.5 million fewer jobs than in February.
BLS: “Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 1.4 million in August, following increases of larger magnitude in the prior 3 months. In August, nonfarm employment was below its February level by 11.5 million, or 7.6 percent.”
Washington Post’s Heather Long: “Official unemployment rate = 8.4% That’s the lowest unemployment rate since March but one of worst in modern history. **About 48% of the 22 million jobs lost during the pandemic have returned**”
Permanent job losses rose by 534,000 in August to 2.1 million since February.
BLS: “In August, the number of permanent job losers increased by 534,000 to 3.4 million; this measure has risen by 2.1 million since February.”
Hispanic and Asian unemployment remains over 10 percent, and the Black unemployment rate remains nearly twice that of white Americans.
Washington Post’s Heather Long: “This continues to be a highly uneven recovery. Black, Hispanic and younger workers remain over 10% unemployed Men: 8% Women: 8.4% Teens: 16.1% White: 7.3% Hispanic: 10.5% Asian: 10.7% Black: 13%”
There continue to be mass layoffs costing tens of thousands of jobs.
Yahoo News: “Still, a wave of new layoffs from major corporations looms. On Tuesday, Disney said it would be cutting 28,000 jobs in its resort business, in one of the deepest reductions announced so far during the pandemic period. Shell on Wednesday said it planned to slash up to 9,000 positions by the end of 2022. And airlines including American Airlines and United Airlines Holdings have each warned they could furlough some 19,000 and 12,000 workers, respectively, following the October lapse of provisions under Congress’s CARES Act that gave the industry billions to help keep workers on payrolls.”
Bloomberg: “Tens of thousands of job cuts announced by blue-chip companies in a 24-hour period are a warning sign for the world’s recovery and emerge just ahead of two key reports forecast to show limited progress in the U.S. labor market.”
Challenger Jobs Report: “Job cuts announced by U.S.-based employers jumped to 118,804 in September, up 2.6% from August’s total of 115,762, according to a monthly report released Thursday by global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. September’s total is 186% higher than the 41,557 job cuts announced in September 2019.”
Small businesses remain in peril with millions of small firms at risk and hundreds of thousands expecting to have to close in the next six months.
Bloomberg: “About one in 20 small firms say they expect to permanently shut down in the next six months, according to the latest Small Business Pulse Survey by the Census Bureau.”
CNBC: “Yelp also takes into account the businesses whose closures have become permanent. That number has steadily increased throughout the past six months, now reaching 97,966, representing 60% of closed businesses that won’t be reopening.”
The good news is that the unemployment rate is “only” 8.4% which the president will no doubt trumpet as the greatest unemployment rate in history.
Recall what he started out with in January 2017:
Jobs — The economy has added nearly 2.2 million jobs in the most recent 12 months. It has gained jobs for 75 straight months – the longest streak on record.
President Barack Obama was not so fortunate. When he took office, the economy had already lost 4.4 million jobs in the preceding 12 months.
During Obama’s first 13 months, the economy continued to shed another 4.3 million jobs. But as Trump enters office, employers are eager to hire millions more. The number of job openings continues to hold at near record levels.
The most recent figures show that as of the last business day in November, there were more than 5.5 million unfilled job openings — double the number in the month Obama took office in 2009.
The highest ever recorded in the nearly 16 years the Bureau of Labor Statistics has tracked this figure was in April 2016, when job openings topped 5.8 million. The figure has now been above 5 million every month for 22 months in a row.
Unemployment — Obama also leaves Trump an unemployment rate that is well below the historical norm.
Currently it stands at 4.7 percent. In all the months since 1948 the median jobless rate was 5.6 percent.
Thus Trump has been dealt a far better hand than Obama, who took office when the jobless rate was 7.8 percent and rising. It hit a peak of 10 percent in October of Obama’s first year.
Obama also leaves Trump an unemployment rate that is well below the historical norm.
Currently it stands at 4.7 percent. In all the months since 1948 the median jobless rate was 5.6 percent.
By the way, the airlines and Disney announced this week that they expect massive layoffs shortly. Since Trump hasn’t done anything to contain the coronavirus, most people don’t want to take the risk of killing themselves or other people in order to fly (or ride on Space Mountain) unless they absolutely have to. Thanks to Trump.