August was the 6th month of the COVID crisis in the U.S. labor market, and the situation is dire. We added 1.4 million jobs in Aug, but the labor market remains in crisis. We lost so many jobs in March and Apr that we are still 11.5 million jobs below where we were in Feb. 1/

And, a big chunk of job growth in August—238,000—was temporary hiring by the federal government for the decennial census. Without this, job growth would have been 1.2 million in August. Not counting temporary census jobs, our jobs deficit is now 11.8 million jobs. 2/

And, the pace of job growth is slowing. We added fewer jobs in Aug than July and far fewer than June. Slowing job growth is a disaster when you are 11.8 million jobs in the hole. This is not the V-shaped recovery that could get us out of this crisis in a reasonable timeframe. 3/

To bolster our weak and precarious economy, Congress must get massive aid to state and local governments and extend the unemployment insurance provisions in the CARES Act. 4/ https://www.epi.org/blog/without-federal-aid-to-state-and-local-governments-5-3-million-workers-will-likely-lose-their-jobs-by-the-end-of-2021-see-estimated-job-losses-by-state/ https://www.epi.org/blog/cutting-ui-benefits-by-400-per-week-will-significantly-harm-u-s-families-jobs-and-growth-3-4-million-fewer-jobs-will-be-created-over-the-next-year-as-a-result/

The official unemployment rate was 8.4% in August. That is higher than the unemployment rate ever got in either the early 1990s or the early 2000s recessions. And, the unemployment rate is not counting all coronavirus-related job losses. 5/

In August, there were 13.6 million workers who were officially unemployed. But there were an additional 1.1 million workers who were temporarily unemployed but who were being misclassified as “employed not a work.” 6/

There were also 4.3 million workers who were out of work as a result of the virus but who were being counted as having dropped out of the labor force because they weren’t actively seeking work. 7/

Altogether, that is 19.0 million workers who were either officially unemployed or otherwise out of work as a result of the virus in August. If all these workers were taken into account, the unemployment rate would have been 11.5% in August. 8/

This time with feeling: none of that means @BLS_gov is cooking the books! I know this administration has shown over and over that it will lie about facts and numbers, but that’s not happening at BLS. BLS’s methods are transparent and consistent. 9/

This chart shows job losses by industry over the last 6 months. All (all) major industries are still in the hole, but the biggest losses by far have been in leisure and hospitality, which is a very low-wage industry (restaurants, bars, hotels). 10/

One deeply concerning things in these numbers is that we are down 1.1 million state and local government jobs over the last six months—well over half (-667,500) in education. Republicans in the Senate who are blocking state and local aid are hamstringing our recovery. 11/

(Note, because of seasonal adjustment issues right now, monthly changes in state and local government jobs are distorted and should be ignored—just look at net changes since the pre-virus period.) 12/

The declines in unemp in August came entirely from those who had been temporarily laid off. A huge concern in these numbers was the surge of more than half a million (534,000) workers who have been permanently laid off. This does not bode well for the pace of the recovery. 13/