18% of U.S Workers Are More Likely to Work From Home

1/12/2021

787,000

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped to 787,000 for the week ended Jan. 2 — a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week’s revised level, the Labor Department reported. A new study from the global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas shows that U.S. companies announced 77,030 job cuts in December, up 18.9% from November’s 64,797. For the year 2020, 2,304,755 layoffs were announced, which is 289% higher compared to 2019. December was the 10th month to report job-cut announcement and half of the layoffs (1,109,656) were due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to IHS Markit Forecasts. Furthermore, 308,262 workers filed for benefits under the PUA (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance), a program for the self-employed and gig workers, the Labor Department report shows.

68,000

The December jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that hiring in the U.S economy declined by 140,000, a sign that economic recovery is backtracking and it marked the first month of job loss since the economy started adding back jobs in May 2020. More women than men suffered the loss of jobs in 2020. Women lost 156,000 jobs in December, while men gained 16,000, the data shows.

The U.S unemployment rate stood at 6.7% — well above the pre-pandemic low of 3.5% posted in November 2019. The December job report shows that notable job losses occurred in the leisure and hospitality sector and travel-related industries. Private education industry saw 63,000 jobs cuts — marked the hard-hit sector in December. While job gains occurred in the professional and business services rose by 161,000, and in temporary help services, where nearly 68,000 jobs were added, according to the WSJ.

12M

In 2020, the economy has recovered about 12 million of the 22.2 million jobs that disappeared at the start of the pandemic. According to The Wall Street Journal, restaurants and bars accounted for most of the job losses, while growth seen in the transportation and warehousing industries. Since February 2020, couriers and messages employment has increased every month — have expanded by 220,000 jobs. The hard-hit sector was leisure and hospitality as travel and in-person recreation activities were drastically curtailed. Click here to compare states to see how industries rank by employment. New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were America’s hardest-hit states earlier in the pandemic and also saw the highest unemployment rates in November, compared to Nebraska, South Dakota and Iowa. Click here to compare changes in payrolls across states and industries.

18%

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed many aspects of society, from transportation to education, and even accelerate trends that were already existing, such as shifts to remote work. Abolfazl Mohammadian, Professor of University of Illinois at Chicago, IL (UIC) reported that approximately 18% of U.S workers are more likely to work from home every day in the post-pandemic era — more than double the amount before the COVID-19 pandemic. According to The Wall Street Journal report, many workers across the U.S have a positive hope to similarly improved post-pandemic commutes. Even though the offices reopen after the pandemic on a large scale, most of the employees prefer to go in only a few days in a week and they’ll have the flexibility to travel at off-peak times, the report shows.

57.1

IHS Markit said its manufacturing PMI in the US rose to a multi-year high in December, rising to 57.1 in December from 56.7 in November. It marked the highest since September 2014. The index also improved from its preliminary reading in mid-December of 56.5. According to the ISM manufacturing index, the production index rose to 64.8% — an increase of 4 percentage points compared to the November reading of 60.8% and while the index for new orders also rose to 67.9% from 65.1%. The employment index in December returned to expansion territory, rose to 51.5% from 48.4% — this is the second time in the past 17 months that the employment indicator has been above 50%.

1M

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his ambitious goal is to vaccinate 1 million New Yorkers — about an eighth of the population, by the end of January. However, meeting the goal also would require help from the federal and state governments, as well as the manufacturers of the vaccine, the mayor said. He added the city will involve community clinics, pop-up sites and schools, where vaccines will be administered. Just over 11.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines distributed this week, and only 2.1 million people have received their first dose, according to data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The U.S began vaccinating people on Dec.14, 9.27 million doses have been given for people so far and at least 379,862 people have gotten their second shots. Click here to track COVID vaccine distribution around the world.

52

Meanwhile, we have a new Guinness World Record. A man in the US named David Rush has broken a world record for catching over 52 nuts using head within the time span of 1 minute — beating the previous record of 38. David said he fixed the can to his head with tape so it has no chance of falling down when trying to catch an almond nut. He has broken more than 150 Guinness records for juggling, balancing, and many more with a mission to promote a STEM and growth mindset, according to the UPI.