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The number of US workers on temporary layoff dropped 31% in June

Before the coronavirus picked up, it was the American jobs market that was rebounding.

Before the coronavirus picked up, it was the American jobs market that was rebounding.

The US unemployment rate fell from 13.3% in May to 11.1% in June, still far off the low of 3.5% in March but better than forecast. Payrolls swelled by 4.8 million, and the number of workers on temporary layoff declined by almost 5 million, or 31%, to about 11 million.

Compared with May, when the number of workers on temporary layoff fell by just 15%, the June data suggests signs of recovery and that “workers are being recalled to their jobs in large numbers,” says Julia Pollak, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter.

Still, there is a long way to go for a job market recovery. Permanent job losers—i.e. those whose employment ended involuntarily and who began looking for work—rose 26% in June to 2.9 million.

The new numbers were collected in mid-June, before the recent surges in virus cases and, in some states, the resulting sudden shutdowns of restaurants and retail stores that were slowly re-opening across the US.

Workers on temporary layoff were already in a precarious state, and now there’s the risk that recalled workers could be laid off again, which is already happening in some parts of the country.

One study estimates that 42% of the recent US layoffs, including furloughs, will result in permanent job losses due to reduced demand and concerns about further transmission of Covid-19.

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The number of US workers on temporary layoff dropped 31% in June