Outlook on how the incoming administration will invest to shape industries and create new jobs Written by HRCap, Inc.
The U.S. unemployment rate has dropped from 14.7% in April 2020 to 6.9% in October 2020 with half of all jobs lost recovered, but the U.S. economy is still down 10 million jobs from where it was back in February 2020. Employment (non-farm payroll) has risen by 638,000 through the month of October with growth across various industries such as hospitality, professional services, retail, manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare. However, the numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the decline in unemployment in October was highly correlated to temporary layoffs from COVID-19.
In October 2020, David Kelly (Chief Global Strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management) noted on CNBC that the seemingly V-shaped economic recovery is really a steroid kind of recovery, "As the steroid of fiscal stimulus is removed, the economy is going to grow more slowly .. It’s going to grow much more slowly in the fourth quarter than it did in the third.”
The pandemic has also exposed workforce vulnerabilities and escalated the need to revisit several employment, immigration, healthcare policies. President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden have continued to support different policy approaches to workplace safety and labor issues.
Throughout his campaign, Biden expressed his firm commitment to making a $2 trillion investment in clean energy to generate more than 10 million well-paying jobs in the United States all the while combatting climate change issues, restoring infrastructures, and competing in global economies with American-made technologies. The proposal would lead to heightened awareness of climate control and will create jobs across Agriculture, Automotive, Infrastructure, Housing, Transit, and Power Industries.
President-elect Biden would be inheriting a much weaker economy than Trump did back in 2017, but an economic forecast from Moody's Analytics still showed that his presidency would create 7 million more jobs compared to a second Trump term. The current Trump administration has not yet conceded to the election results, and the balance of power within the Senate will affect the majority of policy proposals. However, Biden's $2 Trillion investment will impact both the U.S. and global labor market as he commits to rebuilding America’s workforce and reuniting the country throughout the pandemic.
Source: HRCap, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, NY Times, NBC News, EBN (Employee Benefit News), Moody's Analytics, Joebiden.com