The U.S. economic recovery on good track with 916,000 new jobs

DORAL, FL – The U.S. economic recovery from the pandemic reaches positive record levels in March as employers added 916,000 jobs, reported CNN Business. 

The Labor Department said on Friday this is the “biggest gain” since August and a substantial improvement compared with the 468,000 jobs reported for February and the 100,000 from the initial reading. 

According to economists, the expectations were highly excelled last month when hopes were of around 647,000 new jobs.

The new scenario suggests, as per the economists reading, that the labor market could finally be on the right track to reach the employment levels sustained before the pandemic, although there are still years ahead to get there since the job gap is still too wide with 8.4 million jobs fewer than before COVID-19.

In an interview with CNN, Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, said “it could take more than a year to dig out of the total jobs shortfall.” “However, today’s number is certainly a promising sign for the recovery.”

The U.S. economic recovery has been also influenced by the vaccines rollout and the government’s financial aid. 

“With the vaccination program likely to reach critical mass within the next couple of months and the next round of fiscal stimulus providing a big boost, there is finally real light at the end of the tunnel,” said Paul Ashworth, chief US economist for Capital Economics, to CNN. 

Another sign of the recovery has to do with the unemployment rate that improved to 6% (the lowest since the start of the pandemic) compared with the 6.2% in February.

The U.S. economic recovery by sectors

Despite the job market is far from being completely recovered, many sectores already reached pre-covid employment levels or are on their way.

Restaurants and bars added 176,000 jobs after being struck hard by the shutdowns, while state and local education jobs rose by 126,000 as schools started to reopen.

Hotels and other accommodations added 40,000 jobs, and the category that includes performing arts, spectator sports and amusement parks, other 64,000 according to the Labor Department’s report cited by the media.

On the other hand, construction added 110,000 jobs and delivery services, such as FedEx (FDX) and United Parcel Service (UPS), added another 17,000 jobs.

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