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January 08, 2021US EMPLOYMENT, DECEMBER 2020 AND ANNUAL The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that US non-farm payroll employment decreased by 0.1 million from November to December 2020, the first time decrease after April 2020. The decrease in US non-farm payroll employment reflected the recent increase in COVID-19 cases and measures to contain it.
The US employment fell by 22.2 million in March and April combined. The largest employment declines occurred in leisure and hospitality, private education, and government in December 2020. Employment increased in professional and business services, retail trade, construction, and transportation and warehousing. Nonfarm employment in December was 6.5% (9.8 million) below its February level.
The US unemployment rate remained same at 6.7% in December 2020, the unemployment rate is 8.1 percentage points lower than recent high in April 2020. US unemployment was 10.7 million in December 2020. While unemployment decreased for previous seven consecutive months, the US unemployment rate remains 3.2 percentage points higher and the number of unemployed persons increased by 5.0 million since February 2020 due to COVID-19 and efforts to contain it.
The US participation rate was stable at 61.5% of the working age population in December, this is 1.8 percentage points below its February level.
The US employment to population ratio was stable at 57.4% in December but 3.7 percentage points lower than its February level.
The average US employment level declined by 8.7 million in 2020 to 142.3 million compared to an increase of 2.0 million in 2019. The unemployment rate averaged 8.1% in 2020 compared to 3.7% in 2019. As the year 2020 was an unprecedented year due to COVID-19 pandemic and measures to contain it. The average unemployment rate in 2020 was the second highest since 2011.
The participation rate was down 1.35 percentage points compared to the previous year at 61.7% in 2020, the lowest level since 1976, while the US employment rate declined by 4.0 percentage points to 56.8% in 2020, the lowest level since 1976.
The reference week for the US household survey was December 6th through December 12th.
Note: Canadian and US labour force statistics refer to different working-age cohorts.
Sources:
US Bureau of Labor Statistics news release, Commissioner's Statement on the Employment Situation
Statistics Canada. Table 14-10-0287-01 Labour force characteristics, monthly, seasonally adjusted and trend-cycle
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