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Where Did All the Workers Go?
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| Contributor | Jason |
| Last Edited | Jason Oct 15, 2021 08:24am |
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| Category | Editorial |
| News Date | Friday, October 8, 2021 02:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The Labor Department on Friday reported another disappointing month for employment, but the problem wasn’t a dearth of jobs. The question is whatever happened to the workers?
Employers added a mere 194,000 jobs in September, the second negative monthly surprise in a row. While the unemployment rate fell sharply to 4.8% from 5.2%, that’s because 183,000 Americans dropped out of the workforce. Labor force participation fell 0.1 percentage point to 61.6% and has barely moved since 61.4% a year ago even as the economy has grown rapidly.
There are still five million fewer Americans employed than before the pandemic lockdowns, and three million of them have left the workforce. Even the White House didn’t try to sugar-coat the numbers. It blamed the lousy report on Covid’s Delta variant, which probably contributed to the dearth of new jobs in food and accommodation.
But the number of Americans unable to work because their employer closed or lost business due to the pandemic dropped 600,000 from August. Covid cases declined by a third in September, and many industries unaffected by the virus also failed to add workers.
Employers are crying for workers but they can’t find them even when they pay more. According to the National Federation of Independent Business, 67% of small businesses reported hiring or trying to hire in September, and 42% raised compensation. But a record 51% still have openings they couldn’t fill. |
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