What's really going on with the labor market
26 February 2021
Source: YCharts
The labor market is showing some signs of improvement: Jobless claims fell to 730,000 — a dramatic drop from 841,000 the previous week. And the latest jobs report showed a pandemic-era low unemployment rate of 6.3%
But, but, but: That's not the full story, experts say.
The big picture: Last week's jobless claims are significantly lower compared with the start of the pandemic, but they're still well above pre-pandemic levels.
- Add in the fresh filings for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program last week — created for gig and self-employed workers — and claims totaled close to 1.2 million.
One possible reason for the drop-off: Winter storms that caused power outages across Texas and beyond may have prevented some from filing for unemployment.
- "Claims in Texas fell last week, but some economists say that could have reflected difficulty in filing for benefits," Wall Street Journal's Eric Morath writes.
Between the lines: When you account for the scores of Americans — such as overwhelmed parents and caregivers — who have simply dropped out of the workforce or others who have given up looking for work, the unemployment rate is closer to 10%, notes Nick Bunker, director of economic research at the jobs site Indeed.
There's also a great deal of inequality baked into the jobs trouble.
- The Black unemployment rate is at 9.2%, compared with the 5.7% white unemployment rate.
- And 2.1 million women have dropped out of the labor force, compared with 1.7 million men.
The bottom line: "The labor market is in a better spot than it was last April, but its recovery is incomplete and unequal," Bunker says.
What to watch: Workers that refuse work at unsafe workplaces will now be eligible for unemployment pay, according to a change by the Biden administration on Thursday.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.