The unemployment rate fell to 4.6%, as the U.S. added 531,000 jobs in October. In the past two months, job growth was stronger than anticipated. In September the unemployment rate was 4.8%, and in October there was a 0.2% drop in unemployment. According to the report, the labor market and economy is recovering after the contagious delta variant of the COVID-19. Strong demand from consumers are rapidly increasing wages, and employers are desperate to hire to meet the strong demand. Employers are also offering more flexible hours and bonuses to attract employees. Households are spending their savings, which has been boosted by federal stimulus and extra unemployment benefits. All these benefits are attracting people back into the labor force. As employers are entering to holiday shopping season, they need to hire more employees to meet the needs of the consumers. As a result, higher demand may lead to higher prices and higher wages could lead to higher inflation, and if firms raise their prices, The Federal Bank has approved plans this week to buy back its bond due to inflationary concerns.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/october-jobs-report-unemployment-rate-2021-11636061282?mod=hp_lead_pos1
2 comments:
In your post you mentioned something that I was going to discuss. It's important to note whether these measurements include the increase in hiring due to the holiday season coming up. These unemployment rates may not accurately depict the true nature of unemployment if they include seasonal employment. However, who knows, seasonal workers may end up being hired for year round work (and maybe that's even in their contract) and that's why the unemployment rate is decreasing. Hopefully this unemployment rate is accurate and that people are finally joining the workforce as we all know the economy needs it!
It will be interesting to see how the labor market heals over the course of this holiday season. While employers are offering higher wages and more benefits, there is still some resistance from people to enter into the workforce partly in fear of COVID-19 exposure. But as long as wages continue to rise, we should hopefully see more signs of progress in resolving the labor shortage.
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