Labor market continued slow recovery in early November

Employment has recovered to 75% of pre-pandemic level

Published November 23, 2020 by Sydney Lake

The labor market continued its slow recovery during the week of Nov. 8, according to Virginia Commonwealth University and Arizona State University economists.

Early November saw 69.9% of working age adults employed, which is still far below the 73.8% employment rate from February right before the pandemic, according to the Real-Time Population Survey conducted by VCU assistant economics professor Adam Blandin and Arizona State associate economics professor Alexander Bick.

“The latest [Real-Time Population Survey] results show that, since April, employment has recovered three-quarters of the way back to the pre-pandemic level,” Blandin said in a statement.

Early November also showed an increase in earnings relative to the spring. More than one-third among those employed in February reported an earnings loss in early April. This declined to one-fourth in the most recent survey.

“Together, these results indicate that some of the earnings losses suffered early in the pandemic were temporary in nature,” according to the report.

The Real-Time Population Survey closely follows the methodology of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey and covers the same time period, but is released two weeks earlier. The survey is conducted in collaboration with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.