WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S employers added just 49,000 jobs in January, a sign that that the viral pandemic retains a tight grip on the economy nearly a year after it triggered a painful recession.
The drop follows a decline of 227,000 jobs in December, the first loss since April.
The unemployment rate for January fell sharply to 6.3%, the Labor Department said Friday. About half the drop occurred because some of those out of work found jobs, while others stopped looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.
Economists have forecast that employers added 100,000 jobs in January, according to data provider FactSet. That would have marked a welcome reversal from a loss in December – the first since April.
Still, a gain of that modest size is practically negligible when the economy is nearly 10 million jobs short of its pre-pandemic level.
Unemployment agencies across the country were bombarded with so many claims during the pandemic that many struggled to distinguish the correct from the criminal.
Simple tax forms – barely enough to fill a half-sheet of paper – are now revealing the extent of the identity theft that made state-run unemployment offices lucrative targets for fraud after millions of people lost their jobs during the pandemic.
Meantime, the Texas Workforce Commission hold a virtual job fair every Thursday.
(Copyright 2021 WBAP/KLIF. All rights reserved)
