The unemployment rate decreased more than expected: it fell to 3.9% and is thus closer to its prior pandemic level (3.5%).
Le Monde with AFP
Subject to the hazards of the Covid-19 pandemic, the US labor market is barely. Only 199,000 jobs were created in December 2021, half less than the 440,000 expected by analysts, announced on Friday, January 7 the Department of Labor.
However, the unemployment rate continued to decline, and this more than expected, falling to 3.9% (- 0.3 percentage point) and thus approximation of its level prior to the pandemic (3.5 %). Already in November 2021, job creation were very lower than the expectations of economists (249,000, revised up). These figures are all the more disappointing that the data has been collected before the Omicron variant does not spread in the country.
President Joe Biden, who has made jobs and a reduction of inequalities a priority, had to comment on this report in the middle of the morning. “Employment growth was an average of 537,000 per month in 2021,” said the Department of Labor in a statement.
3.6 million jobs less since the Pandemic
Since April 2020, they are 18.8 million jobs that have been recreated, but there are always 3.6 million jobs in relation to the prevailing situation before the Pandemic of Covid-19. In December 2021, employment continued to grow in the recreation and hotel sector, where the pandemic ramps the most, as well as in professional and commercial services, in industry, construction and transportation. and storage.
Nearly two years after the propagation of COVID-19 in the United States, industries with face-to-face interactions remain extremely vulnerable to infection levels. Many companies have postponed back to the office, sometimes indefinitely. Restaurants and theaters are in a more and more delicate situation due to chronic staff shortages and fears of new OMICRON variant infections. Some school districts have returned to distance learning, or threaten to do so, complicating the return to work, especially women.