The U.S. economy sprouted 1.76 million jobs in July, significantly fewer than the 4.79 million added in June but surpassing analysts’ consensus expectation of 1.5 million.
The gain still leaves the economy 12.88 million jobs short of the number it supported in February, according to the U.S. labor department.
The unemployment rate dropped to 10.2 percent last month. Before the economic shutdown, U.S. unemployment was at a 50-year low of 3.5 percent.
The service sector added the most jobs. The leisure and hospitality sector added 528,000 spots, about a third of the economy’s entire gain; retailers added 258,000 jobs. These were among the sectors the shutdown hit hardest.
Zip Recruiter, an online employment service, reported 7.4 percent more job postings in July than June.
Jobs in construction, mining, and manufacturing did not grow and, in some areas, declined further.
White, Asian, and Hispanic workers gained jobs while the unemployment for African-Americans did not fall.
The number of workers reporting being out of work because they were temporarily laid off declined, indicating that some workers are being recalled to their old jobs. The number of workers permanently let go stayed the same.
Workers laid off for at least 15 to 26 weeks shot up from 4.6 million in June to 6.5 million in July, signaling that the labor market is likely to be slow in reabsorbing workers.
The figure is the highest since 1948 and is almost twice the previous record, set in 2009 as the Great Recession was ending.
That number is ominous: statistics show the longer a person is out of work, the harder it is for them to find another job.
By August, fewer than half the jobs lost in the shutdown had been restored.
Official figures report 16.3 million Americans unemployed as of 31 July, but labor department figures show more than 30 million people receiving some form of unemployment benefit.
Also, more layoffs are coming.
Announcements of future layoffs, which the federal government requires, show “plenty of layoffs are scheduled for August, September and October,” said Julia Pollack, Zip Recruiter’s labor economist. “Many companies are realizing now that the effects” of the shutdown “will be much longer than expected.”
“The easy hiring that was done in May and June has been exhausted,” noted Michelle Meyer, Bank of America’s Chief U.S. Economist. “With many companies not running at full capacity, it becomes harder to get that incremental worker back in.”
About 31 percent of laid-off workers who returned to their jobs were laid off a second time, according to a Cornell University study, adding evidence that the economic recovery will be bumpy.
“We’re going to start to see a lot of small businesses fall by the wayside, a lot of people who are unemployed become chronically unemployed,” said Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard University economist who studies financial and economic crises. “We’re in very, very dangerous territory.”