Post by the Scribe on Aug 31, 2020 2:03:58 GMT
playing with statistics
We have seen the smallest economic contraction of any major Western nation. And we are recovering at a much faster rate than anybody. Over the past three months, we have gained over 9 million jobs, and that’s a record in the history of our country.
While U.S. employers added more than 9 million jobs in May, June and July, that’s fewer than half the 22 million jobs that were lost in March and April as the economy slid into the deepest recession since the Great Depression. What’s more, job gains slowed last month. And at 10.2%, the unemployment rate is still higher than at any time during the Great Recession more than a decade ago. On Thursday, the Labor Department reported that more than a million people filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week. Twenty-seven million people were collecting unemployment as of early August.
Scott Horsley
NPR Chief Economics Correspondent
We have seen the smallest economic contraction of any major Western nation. And we are recovering at a much faster rate than anybody. Over the past three months, we have gained over 9 million jobs, and that’s a record in the history of our country.
While U.S. employers added more than 9 million jobs in May, June and July, that’s fewer than half the 22 million jobs that were lost in March and April as the economy slid into the deepest recession since the Great Depression. What’s more, job gains slowed last month. And at 10.2%, the unemployment rate is still higher than at any time during the Great Recession more than a decade ago. On Thursday, the Labor Department reported that more than a million people filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week. Twenty-seven million people were collecting unemployment as of early August.
Scott Horsley
NPR Chief Economics Correspondent