The American job engine has slowed significantly, stranding millions who have yet to find work after being idled by the pandemic, and offering fresh evidence that the recovery is faltering.
The Labor Department reported Friday that employers added 245,000 jobs in November, fewer than half the number created in October. The pace of hiring has now diminished for five straight months.
While many of those knocked out of a job early in the pandemic have been rehired, there are roughly 10 million fewer jobs than there were in February. Many of the unemployed are weeks away from losing benefits that have sustained them, with emergency assistance approved by Congress last spring set to expire at the end of the year.
In case you are keeping track:
Penn to reclassify economics as STEM major, easing path to visas for international students |
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A $900 Billion Plan Would Help the Economy, but Not Fix It - The New York Times
The economic recovery, slowing for months, is in danger of going into reverse. That's why a growing list of economists, business lobbyists and other advocacy groups are urging lawmakers to rally around the $908 billion aid package currently gaining bipartisan support in Congress.
A plan of that size would fall short of doing everything that economists argue Congress should do to help workers and businesses during the coronavirus pandemic. But they said that if lawmakers could get the details right, Congress should do it anyway.
Hartford Courant to shut Broad Street newsroom as pandemic, economics force change in news
The Hartford Courant's Broad Street offices, largely empty since March when the pandemic began, will close by the end of the year, executives said Friday.
Vacating the site across the street from the William A. O'Neill State Armory and Capitol complex was a difficult call, publisher and editor-in-chief Andrew Julien said.
"It won't change the essence of what we do: Delivering the high-impact journalism readers have come to expect from the Courant and crafting creative solutions that meet the needs of our advertising partners," Julien said.
Quite a lot has been going on:
Epsilyte Moving Expandable Polystyrene (EPS) Prices Up to Regain Reinvestment Economics - Odessa
Epsilyte Moving Expandable Polystyrene (EPS) Prices Up to Regain Reinvestment Economics Associated Press |
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Epsilyte, a leading North American producer of Expandable Polystyrene (EPS), will increase the price of all grades of EPS by $0.06/lb., effective January 1, 2021 or as contracts permit. This adjustment is necessary based on supply and demand dynamics and the need for the business to achieve reinvestment economics.
You must believe in spring - America's economic recovery no longer looks so strong | United
Editor's note (December 4th): Since publication of this article the latest data release shows that jobs growth in America has slowed sharply. The economy added 245,000 jobs in November, down from a monthly average of 1.9m during the summer and autumn.
I N THE SUMMER and autumn America's economy roared back. After peaking at nearly 15% of the labour force, unemployment fell like a stone, while in the third quarter GDP bounced from its lockdown-induced slump. The recovery of the world's largest economy seemed oddly impervious to a second and then a third wave of coronavirus infections, even as economic activity in other parts of the world took a hit.
BC Economics Professor: Double-Dip Recession 'Certainly In The Cards' Without Stimulus
Bob Murphy: Oh, absolutely. In fact, if you back up the last several months, we've seen a decline in the rate of improvement in the labor market. The gains in monthly job numbers have shrunk consistently through the last four or five months now, and the unemployment rate appears to have bottomed out here, if you will, dropping only two tenths of a percentage point in the latest report. So I would certainly agree with the view that the labor market improvement has slowed.
Mathieu: People see a number like 6.7 percent, we've had higher unemployment rates, yet millions are collecting unemployment insurance as we speak, Bob. What's the real unemployment rate? I know that these surveys don't always count people when they're not actively looking for work.
Second stimulus update: Top economists want unemployment, testing, small business relief in 2nd
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