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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) May 2020 Hiring Situation surprised economists, revealing that 2.5 million jobs were regained last month, significantly higher than the 7.5 million job loss anticipated. The gains come as the economy has begun to open up across the country and the initial economic shock of COVID-19 appears to have stabilized. That said, many economists still believe the road to economic recovery will be long. The unemployment rate edged down to 13.3%. 

Within the healthcare sector, 312,400 jobs returned, with gains seen primarily in offices of physicians, healthcare practitioners and dentists. Jobs within ambulatory care settings grew by 375,700, however hospital payrolls fell by 26,700.

As the nation continues to face the largest economic crisis in almost a century, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) April 2020 Hiring Situation revealed that the economy lost 20.5 million jobs last month, leading the unemployment rate to skyrocket to 14.7%. This is the highest rate seen since World War 2. The data reflects the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it.

Amid the worst public health crisis in American history, more than 1.4 million healthcare jobs were lost last month, primarily in ambulatory healthcare services as dental and physician offices closed and elective surgeries came to a halt (-1.2M). Hospital payrolls were down 139,000.

The Report also revealed that if millions of Americans who have been furloughed and expect to return to their jobs are counted, the jobless rate would have almost 5 percentage points higher at nearly 20%.

In the seven weeks since the virus shut down much of the U.S. economy, more than 33 million people have applied for unemployment benefits, as the numbers continue to grow by several million a week.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) March 2020 Hiring Situation confirmed what we already suspected: COVID-19 made a tremendous impact on job growth and hiring in March. The U.S. economy lost 701,000 jobs and the unemployment rate jumped to 4.4%, up from a half-century low of 3.5% in February. This ended the decade-long record of employment growth marking the first and steepest decline in payrolls since the Great Recession. 

The strict measures put in place to help contain the spread of the virus have left many businesses shuttered with the majority of Americans ordered to stay at home outside of essential workers, which include our important healthcare workers on the front lines fighting the virus. 

Healthcare lost 42,500 jobs last month, with the vast majority within ambulatory care (-40,700). Hospital job growth was virtually flat. The healthcare unemployment rate grew from 2.2% in February to 2.8% in March. Over the prior 12 months, health care employment had grown by 374,000. 

The U.S. has the highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, with more than 245K people infected, according to the latest Johns Hopkins University data available at this time.