SUMMARY: A good problem to have. . .the economy is coming back from a COVID fatigue, shattering expectations in the labor market
Department of Labor reported Friday that a record number of Americans missed work in January due to Omicron. A reported 7.8 million people said they took time off from being sick with the virus. This number increased from nearly 1.7 million in December. The survey for January’s report was conducted during the week of Jan. 9-15, the week that infections driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant peaked in the United States. Despite worker shortages, hiring coming out of 2021 was strong.
The January jobs report indicates there are more jobs than workers.
The US added nearly a half of a million new jobs at the top of 2022. The job market exceeded expected that the year would start slowly from the growth of the Omicron variant, supply chain challenges and the slow down from seasonal work but 467,000 jobs were added.
Employment growth continued in leisure and hospitality, in professional and business services, in retail trade, and in transportation and warehousing.
The unemployment rates for adult men (3.8 percent) and Whites (3.4 percent) edged up in January. The jobless rates for adult women (3.6 percent), teenagers (10.9 percent), Blacks (6.9 percent), Asians (3.6 percent), and Hispanics (4.9 percent) showed little or no change over the month. The overall unemployment rate changed slightly from 3.9% to 4%.
The White House is touting the progress tweeting, "In the last year, we have also seen the largest drop in the unemployment rate on record & the strongest economic growth in 40 years," referring to the 6.6 million jobs added in Pres. Joe Biden's first year in office.