US labour market recovery is stop-start and precarious

Last Friday (February 5, 2021), the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their latest labour market data – Employment Situation Summary – February 2021 – which is consistent with a view that the US labour market recovery is stop-start at present and not reducing the jobs lost since March 2020 at any reasonable rate. prediction. Payroll employment growth was stronger in February. The labour force survey data showed consistent employment growth but not strong enough to really do anything about unemployment and the broader labour wastage captured by the BLS U6 measure which was constant at 11.1 per cent. Participation was steady in February, which when coming off a recession is a sign that employment growth is subdued. I remain wedded to the view that the US will have to stabilise the health situation before they will be able to sustain any reasonable economic recovery. Whether the vaccination process in train allows for that is an unknown at present. But with states like Texas seemingly in denial with respect tot the virus, I suspect bad outcomes will emerge in the month ahead. And with the Blue Democrats trying to be Republicans (denying a reasonable stimulus) that doesn’t augur well.

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