A disappointing month for jobs growth in America adds to concern about the pace of recovery
AMERICA’S LACKLUSTRE jobs report on December 3rd rounded off a year of worldwide staffing shortages that have caused havoc with supply chains and dented the global economy. Just 210,000 jobs were added in November, missing economists’ expectations of more than half a million. America’s labour-force participation rate remains 1.5 percentage points below its pre-pandemic baseline . America’s woes are shared across the rich world.
Start with the leavers. Older workers in some countries took lockdowns and the risk of contracting covid-19 as their cue to retire early. Strong financial markets and government handouts boosted personal savings and pension plans. Others, meanwhile, lost their jobs and sawto rejoin the workforce in their 60s or 70s. Pew Research Centre, a think-tank, found that more than half of Americans aged 55 and older were retired by the third quarter of 2021, an increase from 48% two years earlier.
A younger cohort, that could afford a career break, seems to have shifted its priorities in the pandemic. Surveys show that money is not always enough to tempt back employees who enjoyed more time at home with their families during lockdowns. In a survey by Bill Schaninger and colleagues at McKinsey, a consultancy, more than half of employers across various sectors reported greater voluntary turnover than in previous years.
This, allied with economies rebounding from the downturn, created a pick-and-mix of vacancies. Handsome hiring bonuses also encouraged workers to switch roles. People are quitting America’s workforce in record numbers. In Britain, the share of workers changing positions in the third quarter rose to a
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