Even with unprecedented gains, the jobs market is still struggling to get back to normal

Even with unprecedented gains, the jobs market is still struggling to get back to normal

At any other time in U.S. history, creating 12.5 million jobs in nine months would be astonishing. But this is like no other time the nation has seen, and there remains much work to be done to get America back to work again.January's nonfarm payrolls report served as a reminder of just how much.Private jobs grew by just 6,000 for the month as the hospitality, retail and health care industries continued to cut workers. An increase in government hiring helped bring total payroll growth up to 49,000, but that still left the rolls of the total employed 8.7 million lower than in February 2020, just before Covid-19 officially became a pandemic."It's very clear our economy is still in trouble," President Joe Biden said Friday afternoon.The president is correct in many respects.

Though gross domestic product posted two quarters of solid growth to end the year, the $20.9 trillion U.S. economy closed 2020 $814 billion smaller than it was the previous year. On an annualized basis, GDP contracted 3.5%, the worst growth rate since the end of World War II.Yet the mood around Wall Street and much of Main Street remains largely positive. Investors keep buying stocks, economists and Federal Reserve officials