There is a belief that many companies and industries in America cannot find workers. After soaring to 14.8% in April 2020 due to the pandemic, the unemployment rate dropped to 4.6% in October of this year. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports that there were 10.4 million job openings in September but only 7.6 million unemployed workers to fill them.
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Why are so many jobs open? One theory is that people who worked in low-paying hourly jobs have been able to find work that pays better. Another theory is that people have lived on government assistance programs for several months, during which they did not need job-related income. Another is that millions of older Americans retired because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas produces a monthly report on the jobs situation in America. It looks at layoffs by industry, as well as industries adding jobs. It also reports the number of CEOs who leave jobs each month.
Its November report noted, “Job cuts announced by U.S.-based employers plummeted 34.8% in November to 14,875 from the 22,822 announced in October.” This is the lowest total since May 1993. Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, commented, “With the Omicron variant emerging and the unknowns that come with its spread, coupled with the ongoing difficulty hiring and retaining workers, it’s no surprise job cuts are at record lows.”
For the first 11 months of 2021, job cuts dropped sharply from last year’s 2,227,725 to just 302,918.
The industry with the largest number of job cuts in the January through November period was “Aerospace/Defense” at 34,543. This is 60% lower than last year.
These industries have cut the most jobs so far this year:
- Aerospace/Defense (34,543)
- Apparel (950)
- Automotive (10,277)
- Chemical (609)
- Construction (3,482)
- Consumer Products (5,123)
- Education (10,484)
- Electronics (2,277)
- Energy (21,537)
- Entertainment/Leisure (15,279)
- Financial (8,568)
- Fintech (592)
- Food (10,101)
- Government (7,028)
- Health Care/Products (27,447)
- Industrial Goods (15,203)
- Insurance (5.691)
- Legal (66)
- Media (3,611)
- Mining (384)
- Nonprofit (1.612)
- Pharmaceutical (6,774)
- Real Estate (2,762)
- Retail (17,553)
- Services (26,996)
- Technology (12,761)
- Telecommunications (25,481)
- Transportation (10,540)
- Utilities (1,009)
- Warehousing (14,178)
Click here to read about the worst jobs in America.
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