Job Growth Slows, Sparking New Worries About Economy – By Michael Rainey (The Fiscal Times) / Oct 3 2020
The unemployment rate dropped to 7.9% in September, the Labor Department announced Friday, as total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 661,000 during the month.
But what under normal circumstances would be blockbuster job numbers were seen as a disappointment, falling well below expectations of 800,000 while providing fresh evidence that the recovery is losing momentum as fiscal support runs dry and the coronavirus continues to dampen economic activity.
Job growth is clearly slowing, falling from 1.8 million in July and 1.5 million in August, raising new concerns about how long it could take to recover the roughly 22 million jobs lost in the coronavirus recession. The economy has recovered about half of those jobs so far, leaving the labor market nearly 11 million in the hole. Some economists now say it could take until 2022 or even 2023 to recover them all.
“The jobs number is positive, but it’s flashing warning signs,” Ernie Tedeschi of Evercore ISI told The Washington Post. “It’s decelerating fast, and that worries me. If jobs growth is slowing, it’s going to take us longer and longer to recover from this recession.”
Continue to article: https://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2020/10/03/Job-Growth-Slows-Sparking-New-Worries-About-Economy
