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The last day of January past and we are officially one month and a few weeks into the new year. The sense of hope for our community was magnified when President Joe Biden took office and immediately went to work to get our country back to where it used to be. And after one month in 2021, we’ve learned some things about our economy.
We all know how bad our economy was affected by the pandemic. The people of the United States took the hit of COVID-19 harder than any other country. And we’re still far from beating it. With that being said, the numbers in the economy aren’t ever going to be the way they were before the pandemic until we get past the pandemic.
In January alone, near 49,000 jobs were created in the United States. Now, you would think 49,000 is a pretty high number, right? Wrong. 49,000 is much worse than economists expected at this point in time. Our economy has stalled. We’re making no progress, but we aren’t declining at the same rates as before.
According to Nick Bunker, Head of Economic Research for North America, there are 9.9 million fewer jobs since last January. We’re sinking fast. We’re literally doing worse than the Great Recession. Bunker says that 24% of the 9.9 million is made up of food services and preparation like restaurant jobs. 37% of the 9.9 million is made up of casinos, hotels, and other amusement that we are all used to. Without having these jobs available, we’re not going to see our economy grow which means that the pandemic needs to go away before we see any success.
Not only has the number of jobs dropped, but the number of people who are looking for work dropped too. Heather Long, Economics Correspondent at the Washington Post says that nearly 406,000 Americans have given up looking for a job. This is because there are barely any jobs accepting new employees. Not only is there a pandemic to worry about, but there are children in school and they’re expecting all of those who have been laid off to continue looking for work. Until there are jobs available, there isn’t much that can be done.
Now something that has risen is the number of people who are permanently unemployed since the pandemics started. Adam Ozimek, Chief Economist with Upwork, says millions of people have declared themselves permanently unemployed. Why is that? Well, it’s simply because there aren’t as many jobs anymore. Without jobs, what used to be a temporary unemployment claim has turned into a permanent one.
Now, none of this horrible economic news is anything that we can really control. For those who are able, continue supporting businesses and living your life. But as long as the pandemic is here, so is this bad economy.
How has the U.S. economy and unemployment rate affected you? Let us know down in the comments.
This article originally published on GREY Journal.
