Unemployment Rate is Slightly Up

According to Misbar’s investigation, CNN.com reported on May 7, 2021 that the US economy added only 266,000 jobs in April. That was far less than forecasted by economists, who had predicted America would add one million jobs last month. The unemployment rate rose to 6.1% in April, up from 6% a month earlier, as more people returned to the labor force to look actively for work. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) there were job gains in leisure and hospitality, other services, and local government education but those gains were offset by employment declines in temporary help services and in couriers and messengers. 

"Both the unemployment rate, at 6.1 percent, and the number of unemployed persons, at 9.8 million, are down considerably from their recent highs in April 2020 but remain well above their levels prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (3.5 percent and 5.7 million, respectively, in February 2020),” according to BLS. There are still 8.2 million fewer jobs than there were last February, before the crisis began according to Foxbusiness.com. 

According to Bloomberg, the disappointing payrolls are consistent with recent comments from company officials highlighting challenges in filling open positions. “It’s a lot faster to lay off workers than it is to hire them back,” said Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo & Co. “While we are seeing some workers come back into the labor force it just isn’t fast enough.” Parents unable to return to the workforce amid a significant share of schools not yet open may also be to blame according to experts. 

Despite brighter economic predictions, the unemployment rate was up slightly in the last U.S. jobs report.