American companies continued in April to increase hiring, a trend welcomed by Joe Biden who sees it as the result of his economic policy.
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Despite higher costs due to a chronic labor shortage and record inflation, employers have added 428,000 new jobs to the economy particularly in service sectors, manufacturing and transportation, which has been hardest hit by the pandemic.
This is more than the 395,000 jobs that were expected by a consensus of analysts.
But that's unchanged from March, where the number was revised down slightly.
In two years, the American economy has recreated nearly 95% of the 22 million jobs destroyed when the Covid pandemic paralyzed economic activity and plunged the United States into a deep recession in the spring of 2020.
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Although there was a catch-up effect after immediate and massive destruction as well as record unemployment of 14.7% in April 2020, the Democratic president has taken credit for this recovery.
“
Our policy measures have produced the strongest job creations of modern times,
” commented Joe Biden in a press release.
“
The fall in unemployment (is) the fastest ever recorded since the start of a presidential term
,” he added.
The unemployment rate remained at 3.6% close to its February 2020 level, i.e. just before the spread of the pandemic.
At 3.5%, it was then at its lowest level since 1969. In April, the number of unemployed remained "
essentially unchanged at 5.9 million
", notes the ministry in its press release.
The unemployment rate for black or African-American people, on the other hand, fell last month, to 5.9% against 6.2% in March, while remaining much higher than that of whites (3.2%, unchanged) and to that of Hispanics (4.1%, down 0.1 point).
Both the labor market participation rate, at 62.2%, and the employment-to-population ratio, at 60.0%, have on the other hand changed little over the past month, and are still each lower by 1.2%. percentage point at their February 2020 level.
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Labor shortages
Labor supply over the past year has not kept up with the record wave of job creations.
For the past year, companies have been facing shortages of employees after numerous retirements during the pandemic, and massive resignations each month to find better working conditions.
According to another Labor Department survey released this week, there are more than 11 million jobs available in the country, a record.
The leisure and hospitality sector is still down 1.4 million jobs from pre-crisis levels, commented Grant Tronton economist Diane Swonk.
She observes that these losses represent more than the 1.2 million jobs missing from the February 2020 peak. For the education sector, there are still more than 300,000 jobs missing.
“
Burnout and lagging salary gains in education are not
helping” hiring, Ms Swonk commented.
In an attempt to attract candidates, private sector companies have improved salary conditions, increasing hiring bonuses and now offering more generous social benefits.
That fueled higher wages, which rose 0.3% in April from March.
Over one year, they advanced by 5.5%, a leap that was insufficient, however, to offset record inflation.
Read alsoUnited States: labor shortages are spreading in companies
“
There is no doubt that inflation and high prices are a challenge for families across the country, and fighting inflation is a top priority for me
,” Joe Biden reiterated.
He again blamed the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine for the worsening inflation.
Inflation in the United States stood at 8.5% year on year in March, according to the CPI index, the highest in 40 years.