The disappointment was immense Friday morning: the US economy created only 266,000 jobs in April, four times less than the million jobs expected by economists. Thus, the unemployment rate rose from 6% to 6.1% in the United States, according to figures released Friday, May 7 by the labor department.
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the US economy has lost 8.2 million jobs and the country has 9.8 million unemployed for a slightly increasing employment participation rate of 61, 7%. “We knew it wouldn’t be a sprint, it would be a marathon. Frankly, we are moving much faster than I would have thought ”, declared in the wake of the American President Joe Biden. “The climb is steep and we still have a long way to go. “
The controversial federal allowance
April’s underperformance gave rise to numerous explanations. First, there would be a shortage of labor supply. Three economic arguments are also put forward: the persistence of the epidemic due to the coronavirus, even if one in three Americans is fully vaccinated; schools, not fully reopened – which poses childcare problems, as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen explained, rushed to the White House press room; and the federal allowance of 300 dollars (246 euros) per week for the unemployed, which is to last until September.
The subject of the federal allowance is the subject of much controversy. The American Chamber of Commerce, which has opposed the measure from the start, believes it is pushing many workers not to accept jobs. “The $ 300 aid means that one in four recipients earn more from unemployment than they earned while working,” accused its vice president Neil Bradley.
Montana and North Carolina have also announced that they will withdraw this federal aid at the end of June, due to the labor shortage. Jason Furman, professor at Harvard and former economic adviser to Barack Obama, estimated on CNN that this allowance was useful at the worst of the crisis, in 2020 and in January 2021, during the second wave of the epidemic, but was much less for this summer. President Biden rejected what he called “Vague remarks that Americans just don’t want to work”. “The data shows that more workers are looking for a job and many cannot find it”, did he declare.
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