Hiring gains fell off sharply this month as many more layoffs turned permanent, signaling a slow recovery for the US economy from the coronavirus pandemic that spurred massive job losses this spring.
Hiring gains fell off sharply this month as many more layoffs turned permanent, signaling a slow recovery for the U.S. economy from the coronavirus pandemic that spurred massive job losses this spring. American businesses added 661,000 jobs in September, the U.S. Labor Department reported on Friday. “There seems to be a worrisome loss of momentum,” said Drew Matus, an economist at MetLife Investment Management. “There’s a lot of caution on the part of employers.” A little more than 22 million jobs vanished in the spring lockdown as the pandemic’s grip tightened on the U.S. economy in March. September’s hiring gains mean the economy has recovered slightly more than half of those. The coronavirus has now killed over 200,000 Americans and infected more than 7.
