Showing posts with label Bureau of Labor Statistics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bureau of Labor Statistics. Show all posts

Friday, May 7, 2021

Does data prove that the "low" jobs additions in April '21 is due to extended unemployment benefits?

 The U.S. Chamber of Commerce tweeted that the extended unemployment benefits should be stopped given the "low" number of job additions during April 2021.

There's lot of chatter that people are getting more in unemployment benefits and that's keeping them from taking a job. April saw addition of 266,000 jobs. In a normal economy, 266,000 jobs would be a very good report. There could be multiple reasons for why the jobs report came in well below the expectation of a 1 million jobs. 

  • Many parents still have kids who are remote learning. So, they may not have the flexibility to take-up employment while they are caring for their kids.    
  • Vaccines were only widely available in the middle of April. So, people who were waiting to get vaccinated before heading to work, can only now get fully vaccinated.  
The best response to US Chamber of Commerce was provided by Ben Zipperer:         

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