The US unemployment rate dropped to 8.4% in August of from 10.2 % in the previous month, below analysts' expectations of 9.8 % The number of unemployed persons dropped by 2.8 million to 13.6 million, as many businesses continued to rehire employees following coronavirus lockdowns. However, official data may not fully reflect the true picture of the US labor market as many people are being classified as employed even though they are absent from work. If we look closely at the detailed report we will see that the number of people losing permanent jobs is increasing, while part-time unemployment is falling.
The number of people in the U.S. seeing permanent job losses rose by about half a million to 3.4 million, the highest level since 2013. Source: Bloomberg
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