CURRENT DOWNTURN; IS STATE JOB GROWTH AT RISK?

A year behind

Despite many challenges in 2019, the unemployment rate mounted at 3.5 percent. Other indicates of employment, such as the quantity of unwillingly part-time labor, were also at their deepest stages over the decade. The workforce bred marginally where Labor force participation shuffled above 63 percent, which still lowers the pre-recession level.

The health care sector is presently the country largest employer, with over 20 million employed. The health care along with social assistance sector added 567,000 jobs to the economy between November 2018 and November 2019. Over 0.42 million jobs were added in the leisure and hospitality, where professional and business services sector job tally up by 417,000 jobs. Industries like retail trade and mining, however, lost jobs by 31,000 and 9,000 jobs respectively during the previous period.

A year ahead

Job growth enhanced in the first month of 2020 and up by 225,000 jobs. Payrolls lengthened by 225,000 in the first month, facilitated by mild weather. The unemployment rate was slightly altered in the first month, stood at 3.6%. The market gained 225,000 new jobs, which is 42% more than what economists predicted.

Health care and social assistance headed the tally in job formation with 57,000 new jobs. Food and drinking services both up by 53,000 new jobs. The government tally bred by 45,000.  Construction up by 42,000 new jobs. Hourly wage rate rose just 7 cents to $28.44 in January.

Does State Job at risk?

Utah, Vermont is tied with South Carolina for the uppermost employment rate of 97.7 percent. South Carolina has the maximum employment rate in the United States of 97.7 percent. From September 2019 to December 2019, South Carolina’s unemployment rate plunged to 2.3 percent from 2.9 percent North Dakota has the fourth-highest employment rate in the U.S. of 97.6 percent while an unemployment rate of 2.4 percent

Alaska has an employment rate of 93.9 percent, the lowermost in the U.S. The state’s unemployment rate stood at 6.1 percent. Mississippi’s employment rate stood at 94.3 percent marked it the second-lowest in the U.S. The District of Columbia stood at third with an employment rate of 94.7 percent and the unemployment rate of 5.3 percent. West Virginia has the fourth-lowest employment rate in the U.S. and stood at 95.0 percent while an unemployment rate of 5.0% and labor participation rate of 55.7 percent.

The biggest anticipated downturn in output prolonged by the deadly COVID-19 fears workers for hours cut or layoffs. The downward trend in some State makes is difficult for workers to sustain their job. These concerns keep workers into uncertainty accurate and timely information regarding job status is required. A smartphone-based application, LaborAlert, developed by Kiwi Application-LLC (play store URL:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.labouralerts and app store URL:  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/labor-alerts/id1113045391) provided such information to its user, prior to 60 days during the downturn for any layoffs, plant closure, or complete shutdown. 

Labor Alerts also provides filtered statistics for companies in a given State. This tool helps the user analyze layoff data from the past and follow trends as well as forecast how the employment situation may change in the future.

To summarize, the LaborAlerts application allows you to:

  • Create company layoff alerts by simply searching for the company and tapping on their “bell” symbol.
  • See what companies or states are the largest affected by the layoffs or closings
  • Share through social media or text.

To get started, the application need only be installed and asks for no personal data on the user. Although the application is free to use, the following subscription criteria makes for several options to suit your needs.

Download LaborAlerts on the App Store

Download LaborAlerts on the Google Play Store

Sync your devices such as your phone, and tablet to have easy access to your account and the information on the application.