Jobs report shows shape of things to come

The March jobs report shows a staggering loss of 701,000 jobs, one of the biggest monthly losses in history. This data, collected in the first half of March, doesn’t reflect the ten million people who filed unemployment claims in the last half. However, the report confirms the direction of the biggest losses. Almost 60 percent of the entire job loss came from one industry: food services and drinking places. That industry shed 417,000 jobs, equal to a 3.5 percent decline between mid-February and mid-March, a much larger drop than in other leisure and hospitality industries such as museums, performing arts or amusements, and accommodations. Some industries expected to weather the storm are in fact shedding jobs due to social distancing. For example, 61,000 jobs were lost in the health care and social assistance sector, especially in child-care services and offices of physicians and dentists. Some industries continue to expand, especially those related to warehousing and food outside of restaurants.