Key Takeaways From Recent Unemployment Reports

May 07, 2021

Overall the unemployment situation continues to recover from the pandemic-related levels. The unemployment rate has edged down to 6% which is down considerably from its high in April 2020.

Temporary Layoff Numbers

Among the unemployed, the number of persons on temporary layoff declined by 203,000 to 2.0 million. This measure is down considerably from the recent high of 18.0 million in April 2020.

Long-term Unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more)

The number of long-term unemployed is at 4.2 million, which is up by 3.1 million since February 2020. In March, these long-term unemployed accounted for 43.4 percent of the total unemployed. The number of persons jobless 5 to 14 weeks declined by 313,000 to 1.9 million.

Part-time Employment

The number of persons employed part-time for economic reasons, at 5.8 million is 1.4 million higher than in February 2020. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part-time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs.

Household Data

21% of employed persons teleworked because of the coronavirus pandemic, down from 22.7% in the prior month. These data refer to employed persons who teleworked or worked at home for pay at some point in the last 4 weeks specifically because of the pandemic.

11.4 million persons reported that they had been unable to work because their employer closed or lost business due to the pandemic--that is, they did not work at all or worked fewer hours at some point in the last 4 weeks due to the pandemic. This measure is down from 13.3 million in the previous month.

Among those not in the labor force, 3.7 million persons were prevented from looking for work due to the pandemic. This measure is down from 4.2 million the month before.

Establishment Data

Employment in leisure and hospitality increased by 280,000, as pandemic-related restrictions eased in many parts of the country. Nearly two-thirds of the increase was in food services and drinking places ( 176,000).

Employment increased in both public and private education, reflecting the continued resumption of in-person learning and other school-related activities in many parts of the country. Employment rose by 76,000 in local government education, by 50,000 in state government education, and by 64,000 in private education.

Construction added 110,000 jobs, following job losses in the previous month (-56,000) that were likely weather-related. Employment growth in the industry was widespread, with gains of 65,000 in specialty trade contractors, 27,000 in heavy and civil engineering construction, and 18,000 in construction of buildings. Employment in construction is 182,000 below its February 2020 level.

Employment in the other services industry increased by 42,000 over the month, reflecting job gains in personal and laundry services ( 19,000) and in repair and maintenance ( 18,000). Employment in other services is down by 396,000 since February 2020.

Summary

There is obviously a great deal more details available from the entire U.S Bureau Of Labor Statistic report. The data in this article is from the March report available at Employment Situation Summary (bls.gov)