Major economic gains were seen in February’s U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Hiring Situation Report, with the economy adding 379,000 new jobs last month as the pandemic’s winter wave recedes.  The unemployment rate inched down to 6.2% in February from 6.3% in January.  Payrolls remain 9.5 million short of pre-crisis levels. 

Within healthcare, 19,900 new jobs were added in February, with strong gains seen in ambulatory care settings (28,900). Other healthcare settings did not fare as well and continued to demonstrate job loss, with 2,200 hospital jobs and 6,800 nursing care facility jobs disappearing last month. Broader employment in health care and social assistance is down by 909,000 over the year.

The U.S. economy lost 140,000 jobs in the final month of 2020, according to the December U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Hiring Situation. This represented the first month of loss since the pandemic began impacting our nation early in 2020. The decline in payroll employment reflects the recent increase in COVID-19 cases and continued efforts to control the pandemic.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) November 2020 Hiring Situation indicated that job growth is stalling, with only 245,000 new jobs gained last month. Payroll employment is still 9.8 million short of pre-crisis levels—at November’s pace, it would take until 2024 to return to pre-crisis employment levels. The unemployment rate edged down to 6.7%.

The October Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 2020 Hiring Situation reported job growth of 638,000 new jobs last month, with the unemployment rate dropping down one percentage point to 6.9%. In October, employment in healthcare rose by 58,300 new jobs, with the largest gains occurring in ambulatory care settings (50,700) and hospitals (+16,200) These increases were partially offset by a decline of 9,000 in nursing and residential care facilities.

The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 2020 Hiring Situation revealed that 661,000 jobs were created during the month of September. The unemployment rate edged down to 7.9% last month. Bars and restaurants added the most jobs in September (200,000), followed by retail, health care and white-collar businesses. The U.S. has recovered about 11.4 million jobs since the recovery got underway in May. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) August 2020 Hiring Situation, nearly 1.4 million jobs were added to payrolls last month as the economic recovery continues on. The unemployment rate also continued to decline, dipping to 8.4% in August from 10.2% in July. These improvements in the labor market reflect the continued resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) June 2020 Hiring Situation reported that payrolls grew by 4.8 million last month.  Higher than the 3 million jobs economists have anticipated would be gained.  Unemployment dropped from 13.3% to 11.1% while job growth numbers were the largest since the government started keeping records in 1939 amid what economists believe to be the deepest and shortest recession in American history.