The US Has Nearly Recovered All The Jobs Lost To COVID Lockdowns

The U.S. economy recorded an increase of 431,000 jobs in March as COVID-19 concerns ease and more Americans seek work to combat the surging cost of living.

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 431,000 in March while the unemployment rate dipped to 3.6%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Economists surveyed by Dow Jones predicted the U.S. economy would add 490,000 jobs.

Recent gains in the labor market have allowed the U.S. economy to recover over 90% of the 22 million jobs lost during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, The New York Times reported.

“All the constraints on the labor supply that were prevailing in 2021 have really eased,” Lydia Boussour, an economist at Oxford Economics, told The Wall Street Journal, calling it a “really important factor in driving that next leg of the recovery and getting employment back to where it was before the pandemic.”