COVID-19: 22 mn jobs lost in the US in 2020, 140,000 in December alone

 Vinayak Barot

New Delhi: The global pandemic of COVID-19 forced nearly 22 million Americans out of jobs, 140,000 in December 2020 alone, data released on unemployment said.

Employers in the United States slashed around 140,000 jobs in December 2020. An official report said that “as recent COVID-19 spikes have stalled the recovery of the labor market.”

The US is the most coronavirus-affected country in the world with more than 22 million infections so far. Over 378,000 Americans perished in the pandemic.

Also, millions of Americans lost jobs due to shrunken business activities across the USA.

In its monthly report, the US government’s Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) said that “The decline in payroll employment reflects the recent increase in coronavirus (COVID-19) cases and efforts to contain the pandemic.”

Since February 2020, employment in leisure and hospitality has been down by 3.9 million, or 23.2 percent.

According to the BLS report, employment in private education decreased by 63,000 in December 2020 and the government employment overall has been cut by 1.3 million. Jobs in the industries were cut by 450,000 since February 2020.

In December, job losses in leisure and hospitality and in private education were partially offset by gains in professional and business services, retail trade, and construction, the report said.

The BLS report said that “the growth in total nonfarm payroll employment for October was revised up by 44,000 to 654,000, and the gain for November was revised up by 91,000 to 336,000. And amid widespread COVID-19 shutdowns since March and April last year, 22 million Americans lost their jobs.”

The unemployment rate in December was down by 8 percentage points from its recent high in April 2020 but is 3.2 percentage points higher than its pre-pandemic level in February, the Bureau noted.

The US has reported an average 150,000 Coronavirus cases every day in the last week.