US Economic Job Creation

America’s job creation count has been in flux for a while now, probably in connection to the pandemic. In August the hoped-for and economic policymaker predicted job gain was 720,000.  But this figure fell substantially short at 250,000. September was equally (if not more) disappointing with a mere 194,000 jobs added to available options for the unemployed.  These numbers did not fare well for predictions of a strong economic bounce back.

But October is looking brighter.  According to a recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there has been a drop in unemployment from 5.2 to 4.8 percent.  The expectation was 5.1 percent so this should have been seen as good news. But not everyone felt that way.  Economic Research Director at Indeed, Nick Bunker said that

“This is quite a deflating report. The hope was that August was an anomaly but the fact is, the delta variant was still with us in September. One optimistic interpretation is that Covid-19 case counts are receding, so future months should be stronger. But the reality is that we are still in a pandemic.”

Another CNBC report explained that the 4.8 percent unemployment rate is actually the lowest that it has been since February 2020.  

Economic Growth and Job Vacancies

At the beginning of 2019 the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a jump to 7.6 million of job vacancies in America.  Adding 304,000 new jobs in January was actually “almost double the 158,000 the market had forecast.” There have been other organizations noting a jump in employment opportunities throughout the nation as well, in particular the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). While this is really great news, there is of course the concern that this may open the door a bit too wide for those in current stable positions to seek better opportunities that could upset the apple cart, stressing out SME owners. There has also been a substantial decline in job layoffs.


Other good news for workers was the increase in hourly wages in February being “the fastest pace in nine years.”  As well, Kevin E. Schmidt pointed out that:

“The importance of this strength in jobs and wages is that it has driven much of the resurgence in the American economy. Jobs and wages are the cornerstone of consumer spending — the key driver of U.S. economic growth.”

Unemployment dropped to 3.8 percent in February (from 4 percent).