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The US economy is losing 140,000 jobs in December 2020 against expectations of an additional 50,000
The US economy lost jobs for the first time in eight months in December as the COVID-19 attack ravaged the country, indicating a significant loss of momentum that may temporarily halt the recovery from the pandemic.
The US Labor Department said on Friday that the number of jobs in non-agricultural sectors in the United States fell by 140,000 last month. Data for November was revised upwards to show an addition of 336,000 jobs instead of the previous estimates of 245,000. It was the first job drop since April. The economy compensated for just over half of the 22.2 million job losses in March and April. The unemployment rate was 6.7% in December.
Although the labor market is weakening, it is unlikely that the economy will slide back into recession, in light of the government’s approval last week of additional support of nearly $ 900 billion to mitigate the repercussions of the pandemic.
The economy is believed to have grown at an annual rate of roughly 5 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, while the bulk of the increase in GDP is expected to come from inventory investments.
The economy grew at a historic pace of 33.4% in the third quarter after shrinking 31.4% between April and June, the largest since the government began keeping records in 1947.
