Despite new State and local government lockdowns and restrictions, the economy has now recovered roughly 6 in 10 of pandemic job losses in just 7 months.
- During the survey reference period (November 12th), a total of 15 states had either tightening COVID-restrictions or had paused reopening.
- The economy added 245,000 total jobs in November with gains in October (+610,000) revised down and September (+711,000) revised up for a net upward revision of +11,000.
- This includes strong gains in transportation & warehousing (+145,000), professional & business services (+60,000), education & health services (+54,000), construction (+27,000), and manufacturing (+27,000).
- Since the April pandemic-low, the economy has added back 12.3 million jobs.
- Despite new lockdown measures imposed by State and local governments this Fall, as of November there were 4 million MORE Americans with a job than what the CBO in July estimated would occur at years-end.
- The economy has now recovered roughly 6 in 10 (56%) of pandemic job losses in just 7 months. It took Obama-Biden nearly 5 times as long (32 months) to recover the same share of jobs lost in the 2008-09 recession.
- A number of industries have had an even stronger recovery:
- The leisure & hospitality industry has now added back 4.9 million jobs, recovering 6 in 10 (58.5%) of pandemic job losses as of November.
- The retail trade industry has now added back 1.8 million jobs, recovering 8 in 10 (76.9%) of pandemic job losses as of November.
- The construction industry has now added back 0.8 million jobs, recovering 7 in 10 (74.2%) of pandemic job losses as of November.
- Private employment increased by more (+344,000) than overall employment (+245,000) as a result of government employment decreasing by -99,000.
- Government job losses in November were largely due to Census activities wrapping up (-93,028).
- Roughly two-thirds (66.8%) of jobs gains over the past 7 months occurred in relatively low-wage sectors including retail, leisure & hospitality, and education & health services.
The unemployment rate continued to decline in November, falling to 6.7% with notable declines in unemployment rates for Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans.
- The unemployment rate fell by 0.2 percentage point (p.p.) in November to 6.7%. Since the April peak of 14.7%, the unemployment rate has dropped by 8.0 p.p.
- The unemployment rate in November is lower than at any point in Obama-Biden’s first term. In fact, it took 50 months (more than four years) from the 2008-09 recession peak for the unemployment rate to fall to 6.7%.
- In June, the consensus among economic forecasters was that 2020 would end with an unemployment rate above 10%. The unemployment rate is already far below those projections.
- Declines in unemployment rates for minorities exceeded the decline in the overall rate in November: the African American unemployment rate decreased by 0.5 p.p., the Hispanic American rate fell by 0.4 p.p., and the Asian American rate fell by 0.9 p.p.
- As of November, the total number of unemployed has decreased by 12.3 million people (-54%) from the April unemployment peak.
- Black American employment has increased 1.9 million in the past 7 months. This represents the recovery of over 5 in 10 (54%) Black American jobs lost in the pandemic. It took Obama-Biden over 2 years (27 months) to recover the same share of Black American employment lost in the 2008-09 recession.
- Hispanic American employment has increased 4.1 million in the past 7 months. This represents the recovery of roughly 7 in 10 (69%) Hispanic American jobs lost in the pandemic. It took Obama-Biden nearly 2 years (23 months) to recover the same share of Hispanic American employment lost in the 2008-09 recession.
- Since April, the number of workers on temporary layoff has declined by 85% (15.3 million).