Good morning and happy Labor Day! Since 1894, the country has celebrated this day in recognition of the contributions workers make to employers and our economy. Labor Day this year, however, finds us at an awkward place in time. We have a record number of open job postings, too many idle workers, a skills mismatch between the vacant job’s companies need to fill and the talent applicants possess, and a pesky health care issue that is troublesome to shake.
Brad McMillian, chief investment officer of Commonwealth Financial Network offered, “Looking at the unemployment and underemployment numbers, which dropped, as well as the labor force participation rate, it looks to have come from workers electing not to enter the workforce. This ties the shortfall to the pandemic, again, rather than to general economic weakness.”
Here, in one
chart from CNBC, is a Bureau of Labor Statistics chart that depicts which sectors grew last month and which sectors shed jobs:
