Stuck on the Sidelines of The U.S. Job Market

Conversations with some of the 5 million out-of-work Americans shed light on why so many jobs are going begging

- Cristina Lindblad

It’s a riddle dogging employers, the White House, and Wall Street economists alike: Where are the 5 million workers still missing from the U.S. job market—and when will they return?

Nationwide there’s more than one job opening for every American who wants to work. Yet September had the smallest monthly gain in payrolls this year, at 194,000, defying predictions by some politicians and economists that the expiration of emergency federal unemployment benefits would prod more people to find work. The contradictory data speak of a labor market that has been profoundly disrupted by the Covid-19 crisis—and may remain so for some time.

To find out why so many working-age people remain on the sidelines, Bloomberg News spoke at length with 10 of them. Several said they were reluctant to accept a part-time position when what they needed was a full-time one. Others are caring for kids or elderly family members, which limits their ability to work. Still others are in the middle of changing careers and need to skill up. Many are scared of contracting the coronavirus.

About 2.6 million people remain on state jobless benefit rolls. Others are tapping federal and local safety net programs, such as rental assistance. Some are relying on the kindness of relatives.

In the U.S. the pandemic abruptly severed the relationship between employers and employees. That’s in contrast with European countries, where millions of workers were furloughed rather than fired and therefore had a job to come back to. Rebuilding those connections will take time. “Having the same number of job openings and unemployed or underemployed workers does not imply that there will be a very simple direct match,” says Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter Inc., an online jobs marketplace.