Job Growth

Economy & Inflation
Written By Alysha Rashid

In December, U.S. jobs reached a record 153.7 million. About 250,000 new jobs were added every month during the last quarter of 2022.

Total jobs by month, U.S.

Jan 2000 - Dec 2022

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics. Note: Seasonally adjusted. Data for Nov 2022 and Dec 2022 are preliminary.

Among Southern states, 9 have more jobs than they did in February 2020 before the pandemic hit. Louisiana, Mississippi, and West Virginia still have less. 

Change in jobs by state

December 2022 compared to February 2020

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics. Note: Seasonally adjusted. Data for Dec 2022 are preliminary.

While 22 million jobs were lost when Covid hit in 2020, they were all fully recouped by August 2022. By the end of 2022, the nation had reached a new record of 153.7 million jobs (1.2 million more than the pre-pandemic February 2020 level) and had an unemployment rate of 3.5% (equal to the pre-pandemic February 2020 level).1,2

But the U.S. workforce hasn’t grown enough to accommodate this job growth. In November 2022, there were 10.5 million job openings and only 6 million job seekers.3,4 A number of factors have contributed to a reduced American labor force. The country has seen 400,000 excess deaths among the working-age population in the last 3 years due to Covid as well as other causes such as overdoses, suicides, motor vehicle deaths, and pregnancy-related deaths (Motor Vehicle Deaths, Maternal Mortality).5,6 Long Covid has reduced the workforce by an estimated 1.3 to 4.3 million workers (Long Covid Estimates).7 Americans are retiring at higher than average rates and restrictions on immigration have saddled the country with a million worker deficit.8 Additionally, lack of child care kept a million parents of young children from looking for work in 2022.9

Together, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act are predicted to create over 2 million new jobs each year for 10 years.10,11 Ensuring that Americans are healthy and have the child and elder care they need to be able to take advantage of these jobs will be important for ensuring a sufficient supply of workers. In addition, these new jobs will encompass a large variety of occupations.12 Helping workers build the skills necessary to fill these jobs and to transition from old industries to new industries will require substantial retooling of current workforce development systems, ramping up paid apprenticeships, and a host of new approaches to rapidly onboard new workers.13,14,15

  1. “Civilian Labor Force Level”. FRED. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CLF16OV

  2. “Unemployment Rate”. FRED. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE

  3. “Unemployment Level”. FRED. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNEMPLOY

  4. “Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary”. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics”. January, 2023. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm

  5. “Inflation and the Labor Market”. Powell. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. November, 2022. https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/powell20221130a.htm

  6. “About Multiple Cause of Death, 2018-2021, Single Race”. CDC. https://wonder.cdc.gov/mcd-icd10-expanded.html

  7. “One billion days lost: How COVID-19 is hurting the US workforce”. Berdan, Charumilind, Craven, Lamb, and Singhal. McKinsey & Company. January, 2023. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/one-billion-days-lost-how-covid-19-is-hurting-the-us-workforce

  8. “Inflation and the Labor Market”. Powell. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. November, 2022. https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/powell20221130a.htm

  9. “Measuring Household Experiences during the Coronavirus Pandemic”. U.S. Census Bureau. January, 2023. https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products/household-pulse-survey.html 

  10. “Job Creation Estimates Through Proposed Inflation Reduction Act”. Pollen, Lala, Chakraborty. University of Massachusetts Amherst Political Economy Research Institute. August, 2022. https://peri.umass.edu/publication/item/1633-job-creation-estimates-through-proposed-inflation-reduction-act

  11. “15 Million Infrastructure Jobs.  Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/infrastructure/

  12. “Inflation Reduction Act Benefits: Good Paying Jobs and Revitalized U.S. Manufacturing”. Spengeman. Forbes. September, 2022. https://www.forbes.com/sites/energyinnovation/2022/09/28/inflation-reduction-act-benefits-good-paying-jobs-and-revitalized-us-manufacturing/?sh=7820165f6ff9

  13. “The Insightful Leader Live: What You Need to Know about the New Climate Bill. Kellogg Insight. October, 2022. https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/webinars/the-insightful-leader-live-new-climate-bill

  14. “Biden needs to create an infrastructure talent pipeline, not just more jobs”. Kane. Brookings. January, 2021. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2021/01/29/biden-needs-to-create-an-infrastructure-talent-pipeline-not-just-more-jobs/

  15. “Telecommunications Workforce: Additional Workers Will Be Needed to Deploy Broadband, but Concerns Exist About Availability”. U.S. Government Accountability Office. December, 2022. https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105626.pdf

Alysha Rashid
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