The economy still remains 8.2 million jobs short of pre-lockdown levels after the April jobs report published Friday signaled a slow, long road to recovery.
Only 266,000 jobs were added last month, far below the estimated million forecasters predicted. Unemployment was expecting to go down, not up, as it did to 6.1 percent while the government continues to dole out generous benefits to incentivize Netflix and couch surfing over a paycheck.
The April jobs numbers were so low, CNBC’s Steve Liesman appeared to believe there may have been a typo on air.
“It looks like 266,000. It looks like it was a big disappointment at 266, but maybe I have that wrong,” Liesman said, before confirming the number on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website. “Yes, 266 is correct … We have some issues here.”
The April Jobs report numbers were so low that CNBC’s Steve Liesman thought they were wrong pic.twitter.com/Od9pRRFKvl
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 7, 2021
The low numbers follow several months of disappointing jobs figures as employers struggle to recruit laid-off staff who earn just as much, if not more, in government unemployment benefits. According to the Wall Street Journal, more job openings exist this spring than did in the days leading up to the pandemic.
Job growth only averaged 524,000 per month over the last three months presenting an ominous sign a full recovery will be slow.
