WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — The stock market gained more than 800 points Friday on news the national unemployment rate fell to 13.3% in May, and 2.5 million jobs were added.
That's great news in the midst of a recession that has paralyzed the economy and the job market.
The May job gain suggests that businesses have been recalling workers as States reopened their economies. And in a news conference Friday, President Trump announced, "We saved millions of lives and now we're opening and we're opening with a bang."
And the U.S., he says, is back in business, after losing some 40 million jobs since the start of the pandemic. "So, we were able to close our country, save millions of lives, open, and now the trajectory is great," he added.
The added jobs represent the biggest one-month gain since the Depression, suggesting the economy is starting to stabilize.
Bill Adams, Senior Financial Economist at PNC Services, says "One of the reasons why the U.S. economy is probably bouncing back pretty rapidly right now, is that we've had a very aggressive fiscal policy in both the tax credits to households, as well as the enhanced unemployment insurance. If that strong support for fiscal and monetary policy continues, it'll help to create a better recovery in the second half of this year as well.”
The jobs report is much better than the 19.5% unemployment rate analysts expected. But the numbers don’t tell the whole story.
2/5ths of the jobs gained are part time. And here in Ohio, there are about 130,000 people who are still waiting for benefits, with thousands not even included in the unemployment numbers because the backlog in our system has kept them out.
Ron Kelly is one of them. He owns a bed and breakfast in Oberlin, and has been waiting for unemployment benefits since the pandemic started and he was forced to shut down.
"It's just us self-employed,” Ron told us. “We're the last ones to be dealt with, and we're standing on our own."
Kelly is one of the 20 million Americans still without a steady paycheck which has led to a 13% drop in consumer spending.
Michael Shields, a researcher with Policy Matters Ohio says, "Consumers are really struggling. A lot of people took a major hit from this economic pause. And we have a lot of folks in the State who never fully recovered from the last recession. So, we've really got to work on supporting Ohioans through this crisis.”
Add in a pandemic which is not yet under control, and still could set us back. It may not be time for a victory lap just yet, although this is a great start.
You can watch President Trump's jobs report from Friday below:
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