Tag: unemployment rate

Report Contrasts State Government and Private Sector Employment Changes During Pandemic

Mary Pat Campbell
Report Contrasts State Government and Private Sector Employment Changes During Pandemic

Excerpt:

Massachusetts state government employment has been virtually flat during COVID-19 even as employment in the state’s private sector workforce remains nearly 10 percent below pre-pandemic levels, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute. The study, “Public vs. Private Employment in Massachusetts: A Tale of Two Pandemics,” questions whether it makes sense to shield public agencies from last year’s recession at the expense of taxpayers.

“Compared to restaurants, retailers and other businesses, there was very little pressure on state government to cut costs associated with COVID’s economic fallout,” said Serena Hajjar, who authored the study. “The private sector has felt the bulk of the pain of this contraction.”

At one point in April 2020, total employment in Massachusetts was 23 percent below pre-pandemic levels, while at the same time state-level government employment was higher than it was in February 2020.

Author(s): Editorial Staff (press release)

Publication Date: 15 March 2021

Publication Site: Pioneer Institute

MA State Workers Had More Job Security In Pandemic: Study

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://patch.com/massachusetts/boston/ma-state-workers-had-more-job-security-pandemic-study

Excerpt:

 Job losses during the coronavirus pandemic disproportionately hit the private sector workforce in Massachusetts, according to a Pioneer Institute report being released Monday.

The report found the state government payroll has been flat throughout the pandemic, while the private sector workforce remains 10 percent below its pre-pandemic level. At the peak of job cuts last April, the state’s overall unemployment rate was 23 percent, even as state government employment rose higher than it had been in February 2020.

“Compared to restaurants, retailers and other businesses, there was very little pressure on state government to cut costs associated with COVID’s economic fallout,” said Serena Hajjar, who authored the study for the conservative think tank. “The private sector has felt the bulk of the pain of this contraction.”

Author(s): Dave Copeland

Publication Date: 14 March 2021

Publication Site: Patch

How Losing At Least 375 Businesses Since Last March Reshaped D.C.

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.npr.org/local/305/2021/03/12/976091647/how-losing-at-least-375-businesses-since-last-march-reshaped-d-c

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At least 235 brick-and-mortar businesses have closed permanently in D.C. since the first known coronavirus case was reported on March 7, 2020, with 100 more shuttered temporarily, a count by DCist/WAMU found. (The status of another 40 is unknown.)

As of December, more than 36,000 residents were unemployed — a 77% increase over the prior year. Downtown D.C., once an economic engine that contributed nearly 16% of the city’s tax revenue in 2019, is today an effigy of its former self. At night, the bars and restaurants that propelled so much of D.C.’s economic growth seem funereal without scores of intoxicated revelers streaming through the doors and swiping their credit cards.

Author(s): ALLY SCHWEITZER

Publication Date: 12 March 2021

Publication Site: NPR

How covid-19 triggered America’s first female recession in 50 years

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/03/08/how-covid-19-triggered-americas-first-female-recession-in-50-years

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RECESSIONS TYPICALLY hit men harder than women, not least because they tend to disproportionately affect male-dominated industries, such as construction and manufacturing. In the recession of 2008-09, for example, men accounted for some three-quarters of American job losses. The most recent downturn, by contrast, has weighed on female-dominated sectors, such as retail and hospitality. Last year the share of women on American payrolls fell from 50% in March 2020 to 49.1% two months later, before inching back up to 49.8% today.

A recent paper by three economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco suggests that some of the disparity can be explained by differences in parental responsibilities. Using monthly data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, the researchers analysed the labour-market outcomes of four groups of prime-age workers (those aged from 25 to 54): mothers; fathers; women without children; and men without children. They found that women suffered more than men in the wake of the pandemic but mothers fared worst of all. Between February and December the employment rate of mums dropped by 7% and their labour-force participation rate fell by 4%. Fathers, by comparison, suffered the least among the four groups—even less than childless men. Their employment and labour-force participation rates fell by 4% and 1%, respectively. Another recent study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis found that that the effect was biggest for mothers with children under five.

Publication Date: 8 March 2021

Publication Site: The Economist

31.2% of Households Receiving Unemployment Insurance Report Having a Very Difficult Time Paying for Food, Rent, Other Household Expenses

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/03/despite-unemployment-insurance-many-households-struggle-to-meet-basic-needs.html?

Excerpt:

From Feb. 3- 15, about one in 10 (9.4%) U.S. households reported using unemployment insurance to meet spending needs.

About 16.0% of households that used unemployment insurance and had a mortgage or were renting reported having no confidence in their ability to meet their next month’s rent or mortgage payment — higher than the 6.2% of households that had a mortgage or were renting that did not use unemployment insurance.

In addition, about one in six households (16.1%) that used unemployment insurance reported that it was very likely that they would experience eviction or foreclosure in the next two months.

Author(s): ABINASH MOHANTY 

Publication Date: 9 March 2021

Publication Site: U.S. Census Bureau

Pandemic Impact on Mortality and Economy Varies Across Age Groups and Geographies

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/03/initial-impact-covid-19-on-united-states-economy-more-widespread-than-on-mortality.html?utm_campaign=20210308msacos1ccstors&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

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As with geography, job loss was more widespread than excess mortality across age groups.

In April 2020, excess mortality increased with age and was largest among the oldest age group. Individuals ages 85 and older represent only 3% of the total U.S. population ages 25 years and older but accounted for 34% of the overall excess mortality in the country.

On the other hand, employment displacement decreased with age. It was largest among the younger age group (ages 25 to 44). These individuals make up only 39% of the U.S. population ages 25 and older but accounted for about half of the people 25 and older who lost their jobs nationwide.

Author(s): VICTORIA UDALOVA

Publication Date: 8 March 2021

Publication Site: U.S. Census Bureau

New York Unemployment Claims Show a Year of Economic Devastation

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.osc.state.ny.us/reports/impact-covid-19-march-4-2021

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Immediately before the pandemic hit New York, for weeks ending in late February and early March 2020, statewide UI claims averaged around 167,000. Those claims almost doubled to over 314,000, as the shutdown went into effect, starting a weeks-long upward spike that reached more than 3.1 million in mid-May. The historic peak of nearly 3.4 million claimants came in the last week of May 2020. The totals from May onward include claimants under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program (PUA) which provides benefits to individuals not traditionally eligible for unemployment assistance because of self-employment or certain other reasons. (Due to the PUA and other factors, the numbers of workers claiming unemployment benefits differ from the count of those officially counted as unemployed, which peaked in New York State at 1.5 million or 15.9 percent of the labor force in July 2020.)

The longstanding, regular State program of UI benefits funded by employer contributions was the only source of benefits for the first six weeks shown in the graph and continued to fund the largest numbers of claims into early August. (These payments were supplemented by additional federally funded benefits of $600 or $300 weekly for much, though not all, of the period shown.)

Author(s): Thomas DiNapoli

Publication Date: 4 March 2021

Publication Site: Office of the New York Comproller

Arts, Entertainment and Recreation in New York City

Mary Pat Campbell

Recent Trends and Impact of COVID-19

Link: https://www.osc.state.ny.us/reports/osdc/arts-entertainment-and-recreation-new-york-city-recent-trends-and-impact-covid-19

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In 2019, New York City’s arts, entertainment and recreation sector employed 93,500 people in 6,250 establishments. These jobs had an average salary of $79,300 and generated $7.4 billion in total wages.

In 2019, 128,400 residents (including nearly 31,000 self-employed residents) drew their primary source of earnings from the arts, entertainment and recreation sector.

From 2009 to 2019, employment in the sector grew by 42 percent, faster than the 30 percent rate for total private sector employment. Establishments and total wages in the sector also grew faster than all establishments and wages citywide.

As of December 2020, arts, entertainment and recreation employment declined by 66 percent from one year earlier, the largest decline among the City’s economic sectors.

The Chelsea/Clinton/Midtown Manhattan Business District neighborhood, home to 1,921 venues, accounted for 46 percent of all jobs in the sector, far more than any other City neighborhood.

Publication Date: February 2021

Publication Site: Office of the New York State Comptroller

Midwest Labor Markets Shake Off Covid-19 Downturn

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/midwest-labor-markets-shake-off-covid-19-downturn-11613817001

Excerpt:

Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 6.7% in December 2020, from 3.6% a year earlier, according to the Labor Department. Jobless rates in the four Midwest metros rose about half as much, while the rates climbed more in several coastal cities.

Columbus and Cincinnati finished last year with a seasonally adjusted 5.1% unemployment rate. The rate was 4.3% in Indianapolis and 4.7% in Minneapolis. The rates were higher in San Francisco, 7.3%, and Boston, 6.9%. The latter two cities had among the lowest unemployment rates among major metro areas at the end of 2019.

Columbus moved from having a near average unemployment rate in 2019 to having among the nation’s lowest rates for major metro areas late last year. The region, with a population of 2.1 million, is home to Ohio State University, a source of young talent and stability during economic downturns and the area’s largest single employer. The city is also home to the state Capitol and is a major hub for JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest private employer, with 18,000 workers.

Author(s): Kim Mackrael and Joe Barrett

Publication Date: 20 February 2021

Publication Site: Wall Street Journal

American Indicators: The Faces And Stories Behind The Economic Statistics

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.npr.org/2021/02/20/969122775/american-indicators-the-faces-and-stories-behind-the-economic-statistics

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When the coronavirus pandemic hit last year, big parts of the U.S. economy just turned off. Voluntary social distancing and lockdowns, like those during the first wave in March, were necessary to help “flatten the curve” of COVID-19’s spread throughout the country, but these lockdowns had ripple effects on the economy.

Millions suddenly lost their jobs, pushing unemployment to historic highs. When travel ground to a halt, hotel occupancy plummeted — and so did profits, which dropped 84.6% in 2020 from a year earlier. In New Jersey, that meant hotel owner Bhavesh Patel had to furlough employees to make ends meet.

….

That factory is one of the parts of the economy that are slowly coming back. Some sectors are thriving, while others continue to struggle, putting different people in vastly different situations. NPR will spend the year following four people who will help illustrate the arc of the expected economic recovery.

Author(s): Mallory Yu, Ari Shapiro

Publication Date: 20 February 2021

Publication Site: NPR

What does the unemployment rate measure?

Mary Pat Campbell
What does the unemployment rate measure?

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The BLS releases six measures of labor market slack in the monthly jobs report. These include the official unemployment rate (U-3), discussed above, as well as more narrow definitions, called U-1 and U-2, which respectively include only those unemployed at least 15 weeks (the long-term unemployed) or for less than a month (the short-term unemployed). The BLS also publishes broader definitions of slack. The U-6 rate, for instance, counts all those who are technically unemployed plus those are who are working part-time but would prefer full time work, and those “marginally attached to the labor force,” that is, people who say they want either a full-time or part-time job, have not looked for work in the most recent four weeks, but have looked for a job sometime in the past 12 months. When adults classified as “marginally attached” report that they did not recently seek work because they do not believe jobs are available for them, they are classified as “discouraged workers.” The U-4 counts the unemployed and discouraged workers, while U-5 adds in other marginally attached workers. In January, the broadest of these measures, U-6, stood at 11.1 percent, 4.8 percentage points higher than the official unemployment rate.

Author(s): Stephanie Aaronson

Publication Date: 18 February 2021

Publication Site: Brookings

ILLINOIS’ POOREST HIT HARDEST BY COVID-19 JOB LOSS, MANY STILL UNEMPLOYED

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.illinoispolicy.org/illinois-poorest-hit-hardest-by-covid-19-job-loss-many-still-unemployed/

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Illinois households earning less than $40,000 were four-times as likely to lose their jobs from February-April 2020 and nearly 11 times as likely to still be out of work compared to those earning $75,000 or more.

As Illinois tries to rebuild after the worst year for jobs in state history, low-income Illinoisans find themselves even farther behind than others. Job losses suffered during COVID-19 and state-mandated mitigation protocols disproportionately fell on these families.

Author(s): Vincent Caruso

Publication Date: 19 February 2021

Publication Site: Illinois Policy Institute