Job openings surge to a record high 8.12 million
Many employers say they are unable to fill positions because of ongoing fears of catching the coronavirus, child-care responsibilities and generous unemployment benefits.
Many employers say they are unable to fill positions because of ongoing fears of catching the coronavirus, child-care responsibilities and generous unemployment benefits.
States waived their work requirements for unemployment benefits at the start of the pandemic, but about 30 of them have reimposed or are planning to reimpose them. Gov. Eric Holcomb announced Friday that Indiana would do the same.
To nearly everyone’s surprise, employers in April added a comparatively paltry 266,000 jobs, down drastically from a gain of 770,000 in March, which itself was revised down from an initially much higher figure of 916,000.
An unexpected slowdown in hiring nationwide has prompted some Republican governors to start slashing jobless benefits. On Friday, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb said he would consider whether the state should continue to participate in federal pandemic unemployment programs.
Unemployed Hoosiers are currently receiving $300 per week from the federal government in addition to state benefits. The federal program also expanded who is eligible for unemployment.
The figures suggest that as the economy rapidly reopens, businesses are already providing higher pay and benefits to pull workers back into the job market.
Weekly jobless claims are down sharply from a peak of 900,000 in early January, the Labor Department said Thursday.
The state’s unemployment rate has been doggedly retracing its steps over the last year from its latest spike, falling from 16.9% in April 2020 to 3.9% last month.
The most optimistic economists predict the nation could produce as many as 10 million more jobs this year and restore the labor market to its pre-pandemic level. Yet, even in normal times, it would be hard to regain all those jobs so quickly. And these aren’t normal times.
The state’s unemployment rate has been doggedly retracing its steps over the last year from its latest spike, falling from 16.9% in April to 4% in February.
Despite the weekly increase, the four-week average of claims, which smooths out weekly variations, dropped to 746,000, the lowest since late November.
Counting supplemental federal unemployment programs that were established to soften the economic damage from the virus, an estimated 20.1 million people are collecting some form of jobless aid.
Counting supplemental federal unemployment programs that were established to soften the economic damage from the virus, an estimated 18 million people are collecting some form of jobless aid.
For tax purposes, weekly unemployment payments count as income just like wages from a job. But few people realize the money they get from the government is actually taxable.
In Indiana, Kentucky and Maryland, officials have said that for certain weeks in the new year, at least two-thirds of the claims they received were classified as suspicious due to problems verifying identities.
Last week’s decline in applications was broad-based, with 36 states (including Indiana) and the District of Columbia reporting fewer people seeking unemployment benefits. That suggests that employers might be cutting fewer jobs.
The figures underscore that the job market has stalled, with employers having added a mere 49,000 jobs in January after cutting workers in December.
The Senate Pensions and Labor Committee on Wednesday discussed Senate Bill 44, which would authorize the Indiana Department of Workforce Development to implement a work-sharing program, but the chairman of the committee refused to vote on the bill.
Thursday’s government report showed a sizable rise in the total number of Americans who are receiving jobless aid, including through extended benefit programs—a sign that long-term unemployment may be growing.
More than 1.5 million people quit their jobs voluntarily because of the pandemic last year and filed for unemployment insurance, according to data from the Department of Labor, more than twice the amount over the same period in 2019.