While much of the economic news that has been coming out as of late has not been good news to say the very least (we're still suffering very high unemployment numbers, 55+ mil people on unemployment insurance, many small businesses are still not allowed to open, etc), we still get some decent news every now and then. And it shows as 1.4 million people were hired for employment during the month of August.
According to Fox Business (full link to mentioned articles will be down below), the Unemployment rate dropped unexpectedly in August as over 1.4 million people gained employment. As a result, for the first time since March, the unemployment rate has been below 10%. This is contrasted with a peak of 14.7% that was seen in April.
Even with this news, the DOW still recently saw a fall of 521 points, or 1.9%. This is arguably due to a massive sell off that we've been seeing with many tech stocks.
What sectors have been seeing the most gains in employment?
The Public Sector has been seeing the most amount of hiring as the Government added 344,000 jobs in the month of August. A lot of these Public Sector jobs have involved temporary Census Workers, 228,000 of the 344,000 jobs that the Gov added. Another 95,000 of the 344,000 involved employment in Local Governments.
Other sectors that have seen the most amount of gains have been Retail (249,000), Professional and Business Services (197,000), Education and Health Services (147,000), Transportation (78,000), the Financial Sector (36,000), Manufacturing (29,000), and Wholesale Trade (14,000).
The consolidation of the economy is continuing to grow
While we have been seeing some gains in employment and that is always of benefit for those that depend on some form of employment in order to make a living (which is the vast majority of people), with the exception of the Public Sector (who's means of obtaining the funds needed to create jobs usually comes from Taxation), much of the gains in employment have been made by medium sized to large sized companies.
This is of course largely attributed to the fact that still many small businesses are being prevented by law to operate normally, and as a result, it's been estimated that up to 20% of small businesses that were open in January are now either closed temporarily or permanently.
Without the open and free competition of small businesses and with large businesses still being allowed to operate as normal or with very little differentiation from before, there is likely to be more consolidation of both wealth and also oligopoly power.
It should be noted however that although the trends of the current state of the market is headed in this direction, there is still many opportunities for people to learn how to learn how to make a income of their own and to not have be dependent on a large corporation like Wall-Mart for a living.
As a saying that I've been a fan of for awhile, it's that even during Quarantine, stay hustling 💪!
For those interested in learning how to make a income of their own, I'll be working on making content relating to that in regards to Entrepreneurship.
Feel free to let me know your take on my article down below.
Articles Cited: https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/august-jobs-report-coronavirus-pandemic-2020
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/03/stock-market-futures-open-to-close-news.html