At least 6.5 million people were cut off from federal unemployment benefits in September, but don’t expect most of them to rush back into the U.S. labor force looking for work.
The U.S. probably saw somewhat faster hiring in September after a dismal 235,000 increase in new jobs in August, according to a survey of economists. Wall Street DJIA is expecting an increase of about 500,000 new jobs.
Yet most companies say it’s not easy to find people to hire, even when they offer higher pay. The U.S. has a record number of job openings and they are not being filled very quickly.
The employment report comes out next Friday and highlights a busy U.S. economic calendar.
A surprising labor shortage of sorts has become one of the biggest constraints on the economic recovery. The number of people working is still 5 million below pre-crisis levels – and that doesn’t count another several million jobs that likely would have been created had there been no pandemic at all.
What will help in September, economists say, is the reopening of most schools to in-class learning. That allowed more parents to return to work.
But why aren’t more people returning to work?
Click here to see the full story from Jeffry Bartash at MarketWatch.com.
