Post creations were well below expectations in September, and almost divided by two compared to August.
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It was the cold shower, and it was really not expected: the US economy created in September only 194,000 jobs, very far from the 500,000 espeared. This is the second disappointment, after the figure of August and its 366,000 new jobs. We are far from the rhythm of July, when the economy resumed at full steam, hoping that Covid would soon be a bad memory with more than a million new jobs.
Las, the delta variant has passed by. He broke the summer recovery, especially in services, recreation or restoration. But everyone expected a strong rebound in September, for three main reasons: the reflux of the Variant Delta, the reopening of schools across the United States, whose closure prevented the recovery of the work of some parents, including African-American women raising Only their children; and the end of the federal compensation of $ 300 a week, expired in early September. But this rebound did not take place. 1% of Americans have been absent from work for health reasons, against 0.6 points usually, which is clearly explained by the persistence of COVID.
Labor shortages
“The employment figures are worse than what we would like, but better that it seems,” explains Jason Furman, an economist in Harvard and former councilor of Barack Obama. It notes that unemployment is “sharply drop”, that of the blacks “even more” and that wages (excluding inflation) are “on a sharp rise”.
The unemployment rate actually decreased sharply from 5.2% to 4.8%. The number of unemployed has, for its part, decreased by 700,000 people. Today, US statistics have some 7.7 million unemployed. However, the country remains below levels before the pandemic (3.5% unemployment for 5.7 million unemployed in February 2020). At the same time, the participation rate for the use of Americans increased from 63.3% to 61.6% and the country still counts 5 million less than before the pandemic.
This withdrawal from American labor markets accentuates labor shortages. Some 11 million posts were not provided at the end of July, a historical record. Employers strive to attract labor force by increasing salaries. Over one year, average remuneration increased over one year of 4.6%, an important leap that remains below inflation level.
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