Thursday, 06 August 2020_Weeks of record job losses have left the United States with unemployment rates not seen in more than a decade, with millions of Americans facing the prospect of a permanent job loss as the resurgence of the coronavirus has caused many states to reimpose restrictions.
The US administration is expected to report on Friday that the pace of hiring has slowed significantly after a brief rebound in earlier months.
That will force many people to seek job with new industries, according to data provider FactSet, which said that the unemployment rate declined from 11.1 percent to a still-high 10.5 percent.
Economists expect the Donald Trump administration to report that employers added 1.6 million jobs in July.
Looking towards the report, they analyzed data from Homebase, a provider of scheduling software to small businesses, and concluded that the US job growth weakened in July compared with June.
Hiring has slowed much more in states with heavy viral outbreaks, including Arizona, Florida, and Texas, according to researchers at the St Louis Federal Reserve.
July’s expected gain would fall way short of June's 4.8 million increase and would signal that hiring has sharply slowed.
Traditional retail stores will probably never regain their pre-pandemic levels of sales or employment as consumers increasingly turn to internet purchases.
Online healthcare will likely eliminate some doctors' office jobs. And online videoconferencing will replace some portion of business travel. Those changes alone could destroy millions of jobs.
A survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in July found that nearly half of those who have lost jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic said those jobs are gone for good.
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