Despite new data released Friday by the Labor Department showing modest job gains in August, the U.S. economy has a long way to go before it regains pre-pandemic employment levels. The rate of job recovery has slowed significantly since June, in part due to the expiration of a raft of stimulus measures from the CARES Act in March.
Millions of Americans remain unemployed, and while some sectors—like education, retail, and healthcare—are showing signs of bouncing back, others—like travel and hospitality—are facing an uncertain future.
Here are ten numbers that sum up the strained American job market right now.
13.6 million
That’s how many people are unemployed right now, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department.
1.4 million
That’s how many jobs the U.S. added in August, down significantly from the 4.8 million new jobs added in June but not far off the 1.8 million new additions in July.
17%
That’s the portion of August’s job gains that are attributable to temporary Census jobs that will disappear again in the coming weeks.
6.2 million
That’s the number of people who reported that they have been laid off temporarily in August, down from a high of 18.1 million in April but still significantly higher than the 2.7 million in February. And 3.4 million people reported that they had been laid off permanently last month.
A postal worker delivers mail in Brooklyn, New York, on September 1.
AP11.5 million
That’s how many jobs have yet to be recovered since February, despite the modest gains over the summer.
8.4%
That’s the current unemployment rate, down from a peak of 14.7% in April. During the Great Recession, the unemployment rate peaked at 10.6%. Before the coronavirus crisis, the unemployment rate hit a 50-year low of 3.5% in February.
16,000
That’s how many jobs United Airlines said it would cut in October when federal funding from the CARES Act runs out. American Airlines will cut 19,000 jobs that month for the same reason.
A restaurant worker wears a protective face mask and gloves in New York City.
GETTY IMAGES45
That’s how many states have been approved by FEMA to send out an extra $300 or $400 in weekly unemployment benefits under a new program created by President Trump. So far, however, only Arizona and Texas have begun paying out the money.
3 weeks
That’s how long the federal government said it would supply money for the new unemployment program for newly approved states. After that, the money will be allocated on a weekly basis to ensure it gets distributed fairly to every state that’s eligible.
72%
That’s the portion of workers surveyed by Slack that said they wanted to continue a combination of remote and in-office working. Only 12% of respondents said they wanted to return to the office full time. In June, a Stanford study found that 42% of the American workforce was working from home.