Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 266,000 in April 2021. The unemployment rate stood little changed at 6.1%, as did the number of unemployed persons at 9.8 million, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest employment report.
While unemployment is down considerably from its highs in April 2020, the unemployment rate and number of unemployed persons remain well above the pre-pandemic rate in February 2020—3.5% and 5.7 million, respectively.
The number of persons on temporary layoff was 2.1 million in April, little changed month to month but down from 18 million in April 2020. The number of permanent job losers is 3.5 million, up by 2.2 million from February 2020.
The number of persons jobless less than five weeks rose by 237,000 to 2.4 million in April, while the number of long-term unemployed—jobless for 27 weeks or more—was relatively unchanged at 4.2 million in April, but 3.1 million higher than in February 2020. The long-term unemployed accounted for 43% of total unemployed persons in April.
The last month’s nonfarm payroll growth follows two months of much larger increases—770,000 in March and 536,000 in February. April’s job gains in leisure and hospitality, other services, and local government education were offset in part by employment declines in other sectors, including temporary help services and couriers and messengers.
“The main culprit in the disappointing jobs report is labor availability,” says Ali Wolf, chief economist at Zonda. “Different measures of job openings show that there are jobs available, but companies are reporting a hard time finding people to fill them. The extended unemployment benefits offer an easy scapegoat, and certainly play a role, but there are other reasons as well. A skills gap, childcare issues, and lingering virus fears are also holding the economy back from reaching its full potential.”
According to supplemental data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ household survey, 18.3% of employed persons teleworked because of the COVID-19 pandemic in April, down from 21% in March. Over the same period, 9.4 million persons reported that they had been unable to work because their employer closed or lost business due to the pandemic, down from 11.4 million the previous month. Of this number, 9.3% reported they had received some pay from their employer for the hours not worked.
Employment in construction across all sectors was unchanged from March to April. As of now, employment is up by 917,000 year over year, but down 196,000 from February 2020.
“The April jobs report indicates that the number of residential building workers fell slightly (0.1%) month over month, but remains near the highest level since 2008,” says Odeta Kushi, First American deputy chief economist. “The housing market continues to suffer from a lack of housing supply following years of under building, and this supports increased building. More hammers, more homes.”
