Despite a jump in overall employment, the latest reports show state and local jobs remaining unfilled, notably in education.
While the American economy, with its mystifying mix of signs and signals, has continued to regain many jobs lost during the pandemic, job totals in state and local governments appear to be recovering more slowly.
From coverage on Route Fifty, “State and Local Employment Remains Stubbornly Down” comes this insight:
State and local government employment was still down by nearly 1.2 million jobs in May compared to February of 2020, just before the coronavirus took hold in the U.S., according estimates the Labor Department released on Friday.
Most of those missing jobs—800,000 as of last month—are in the state and local education sectors. About 556,000 of the education losses are at the local level. Education employment declined as many schools switched to remote learning programs during the pandemic.
