The United States has released data indicating that it gained about 235,000 jobs last month, a total far below expectations that could mean that the Delta variant is harming the US economic recovery.
Africa Today News, New York’s findings showed that the payroll increase reported by the Labor Department in August was sharply lower than the upwardly revised 1.1 million positions added in July, but the unemployment rate nonetheless declined to 5.2 percent from 5.4 per cent.
While they correctly predicted the unemployment rate, analysts had expected the economy to gain 750,000 jobs last month.
The weak hiring comes as states and businesses impose mask-wearing requirements and other restrictions to fend off the fast-spreading Delta variant.
After the economy lost millions of jobs as the pandemic started last year, Covid-19 vaccines have allowed for strong rehiring in recent months, but the report said 8.4 million people remain unemployed across the country.
There were ominous signs for the world’s largest economy elsewhere in the report.
The leisure and hospitality sector, which bore which was the hardest hit by the initial layoffs as the pandemic began, had added an average of 350,000 positions per-month over the last six months, but in August it added zero positions, the data showed.
There was no improvement either in the labour force participation rate, which was at 61.7 percent in August, around the range it has hovered at for more than a year.
Among racial groups, adult men and white Americans saw their unemployment rates decline, but joblessness remained little changed for others, including Black Americans with 8.8 per cent unemployment, and Hispanics, for whom unemployment was 6.4 percent.
Industries that did add jobs last month include professional and business services, which rose 74,000, transportation and warehousing, which gained 53,000, and private education, which added 40,000.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK