WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd October, 2020) The US economy was stuck in a slight to modest pace of recovery in September, with the job market struggling, as businesses tried to operate amid the continued impact of the COVID-19, a Federal Reserve survey showed.
"Economic activity continued to increase across all districts, with the pace of growth characterized as slight to modest in most districts. Changes in activity varied greatly by sector (and) manufacturing activity generally increased at a moderate pace," the Fed's Beige Book economic report said on Wednesday.
As for employment, new job losses were seen, especially in manufacturing, the survey said.
"Employment increased in almost all districts, though growth remained slow," according to the Beige Book report. "Employment gains were reported most consistently for manufacturing firms, although firms continued to report new furloughs and layoffs. Most districts continued reporting tight labor markets, attributing it to workers' health and childcare concerns, with many firms consequently offering increased schedule flexibility."
The US economy shrank more than 34.3 percent in the second quarter of 2020 for its sharpest decline since the financial crisis of 2008/09, as of the 50 states in the country went into lockdown to stem the outbreak of the COVID-19 between March and May. While almost all sectors of the economy have largely reopened since, jobs and business growth have been slow.
Some 21 million jobs were lost between March and April, at the height of lockdowns forced by the pandemic. About 2.5 million positions were added back in May and 4.8 million in June, before the recovery began slowing. For all of September, there were just 661,000 job additions.
