Diane Swonk:
Well, there’s really no robust sectors out there. The finance sector has lost the fewest number of jobs. But every major sector has lost jobs since February. And that is important to remember as we look at this data.
Of course, the leisure and hospitality sector lost the most jobs and has regained the most jobs, but they are still 4.4 million down from their peak in February. And that really gives you a sense of, even as we reopen, how much it is a struggle for restaurant and bars to be able to fully restaff, when you still need to socially distance. The same is true of hotels.
So, I think that is really what the moral of the story is. Those hardest hit, those low-wage jobs hardest hit, are the hardest to bring back. And, of course, there’s still many workers that are working from home, or they are at home and being paid, but not working.
Those workers, 11.4 percent of the unemployed, those workers are important — of the employed — are important, because they are the most vulnerable for additional layoffs as we go into the fall. And that includes high-wage workers as well.
So, even though low-wage workers continue to get hit the hardest, and women have sort of not even come back into the labor force — we got a nice uptick in labor force participation, but it wasn’t by women, because, of course, their kids are still online and at home, and that makes it harder for them to rejoin the labor force.
That’s really compromising many households’ ability to pay for food and rent, as you noted in your earlier segment by all of those voices of people that are still struggling.
