Michael R. Strain, Columnist

The Jobs Boom Is Real Despite Disappointing April

Employment still hasn’t caught up to pre-pandemic levels and potential workers keep lingering on the sidelines.

May 7, 2021 at 10:38 AM EDT

Michael R. Strain is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is director of economic policy studies and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It).”

Sign of the times.
Photographer: Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg

Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal

LEARN MORE

This article is for subscribers only.

The U.S. job market served up a shocker in April. Economists expected a million new jobs to be added. But the monthly jobs report released by the Labor Department Friday morning showed 266,000 net payroll gains. In normal times, that number would be considered great news. In light of expectations about a rapid recovery from the Covid-19 recession, it’s a big disappointment.

Normally, a disappointing jobs report reflects a reluctance among employers to hire more workers. But the demand side of the labor market looks strong. The problem is more likely on the supply side; job opportunities are out there but workers aren’t flocking to them. The plural of anecdotes is not data, but all the noise employers are making about their struggle to fill jobs may have more signal than many economists thought.

Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal

LEARN MORE