The Latest U.S Jobs Data Highlights Interesting Performance In August

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The latest jobs data released on Friday last week brought a glimmer of hope considering that the past few months have been heavily affected by the coronavirus. The retail segment is one of the largest contributors to the jobs market with roughly 29 million employed by the segment pre-coronavirus.

To put perspective on why the performance of the U.S jobs market is so exciting, we have to look at the segment’s performance in the previous months. Roughly 2.4 million jobs were lost in March and April this year as many retail businesses shut down due to the COVID-19 restrictions implemented to curb the spread of the viral outbreak. This is a huge number and even more concerning considering that it is only the job losses from the retail segment which is just one of the many economic facets.

Fortunately, the economic reopening measures in June have so far yielded some positive results and hinted towards significant economic recovery. For example, the recent jobs data indicated that there were 249,000 new jobs in the retail market in August. The total number of jobs across the board increased by 1.4 million.

The forces driving the increased retail sales

The increase in retail jobs was mostly experienced major retail stores such as Lowe’s Co and Home Depot which hired 6 percent more employees. This is no surprise considering that many people have been staying at home and also working from home, which means they have paid more attention to improving their homes.

Increased e-commerce purchases as people switch to online buying from home has been a major contributor to the increase in retail jobs. Major e-commerce companies such as Amazon had to hire more employees to support the increased online purchases. Amazon alone announced that it planned to hire 20,000 in August and September.

What this means for the economy

The increase in the number of jobs is great news because it highlights economic recovery. If people receive a regular paycheck, then they have purchasing power and when they exercise this power, then it contributes to a recipe for a healthy economy.

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Neha Gupta
Neha Gupta
Neha Gupta has cleared CFA Level 2 from CFA Institute (USA). She has worked in diverse capacities from financial research to currency trading in a span of 10 years. Neha also covers technology, finance, retail, automotive, energy and other sectors news.