The U.S. added 916,000 jobs in March, far exceeding expectations and offering a sign that the economy is strengthening even as the fight against the coronavirus pandemic continues. Heather Boushey, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, pointed to the American Rescue Plan as part of the reason for the drastic surge in added jobs.
Boushey said focusing on vaccine distribution and providing Americans with additional income in the form of stimulus checks were confidence boosters for the economy.
"We don’t want to make too much of any one-month trend, but this is certainly a step in the right direction. And, I think it reflects all of the work we have done to try to contain the pandemic and to get all of that aid and support out to so many millions of families all across the country," she told Cheddar.
Average Wages Drop
Though the report blew expectations out of the water by roughly 300,000 jobs, data shows that recently hired Americans are earning less than those who were added to payrolls in previous months. Average earnings fell by a tenth of a percentage point. Boushey attributed the decline to the surge in rehires of low-wage workers. Jobs in sectors like leisure and hospitality, education, and construction account for many of the added roles last month.
Analysts expect average wages to continue slipping as more local economies reopen and people in low-wage positions are rehired even as the Federal Reserve expects inflation to rise.
"The wage numbers in recent months have been elevated because so many workers who were in those face-to-face jobs in retail or in the leisure and hospitality sectors that make less than average were out of work. So, now that they’re coming back in, you’re seeing that affect the average numbers," Boushey said.
"We know that even pre-pandemic when we were still in the longest recovery in U.S. recorded history, we were not seeing the kinds of wage growth that we really needed to see for families in the bottom and the middle of the wage distribution," she further explained. "And so as we looked at the American Rescue Plan, as we look at the American Jobs Plan, a core goal is to make sure that we’re not just creating jobs but that we're creating good jobs and we’re focused on making sure that there are jobs that can support a family."
Unemployment Racial Disparities
However, there is concern that trending growth could be skewed in the April jobs report because of rising COVID-19 infections. As a result, Boushey said the Biden administration’s first priority is to contain the virus and ramp up vaccination efforts with the issue of economic growth second.
Data in the March jobs report shows there are continuing unemployment disparities in the Black and Latino communities, and Asian Americans saw the unemployment rate in their community grow nearly a full percentage point from February. Boushey said she will be watching "very closely" to see if that was a single-month event or it is the first sign of a greater trend, although she noted Asian American unemployment is currently about average when compared to the overall economy.
For the Biden administration, its American Rescue Plan, which was signed in mid-March, "was an important step forward" in closing the wealth gap for minorities.
"If you go through the plan, there are so many pieces that are really targeted at making sure that we are creating those good jobs in all parts of our economy and that we are being really attentive to the inequities across communities, especially by race," she noted.
The school shooting in Texas that left 19 children and 2 teachers dead has reignited the debate over gun control.
The tragedy in Uvalde is the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade and marks the latest in a string of mass shootings in the country. Jared Moskowitz, Broward County Commissioner and candidate for Congress in FL-23, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss why gun control measures are stalled in the Senate, and where legislation can move forward from here.
Police and detectives are still investigating the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 children and two adults. Cheddar News was joined by Kirk Burkhalter, professor at New York Law School and former NYPD detective to gain some insight on what investigators are looking for and what comes next.
Texas authorities say the gunman who massacred 21 people at an elementary school was in the building for over an hour before he was killed by law enforcement officers.
Join Cheddar News as we break down the top headlines for Thursday, May 26 including updates on the Texas school shooting, President Joe Biden's executive order on police reform, and a recount in the Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary.
Representative Morgan Griffith of Virginia rebuked words from the FDA commissioner that could have been construed as blaming parents for stockpiling baby formula exacerbating the shortage.
Cheddar News reporter Megan Pratz brings the latest from the scene of yesterday's horrific school shooting at a Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Now the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history with 19 children and two adults killed, Pratz goes into comments by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, details about the deceased shooter, and reactions from members of the community.
The Robb Elementary School mass shooting killing 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas pm Tuesday was the deadliest school shooting since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, and came just 10 days after the grocery store shooting in Buffalo, New York. Nelson Vergara, the founder and CEO of 360 Protective Solutions, joined Cheddar’s Opening Bell to discuss. "Right now what law enforcement is concentrating on is trying to trace his steps as to what motivated the gunman to act the way he did. What it boils down to just trying to figure out what led to his motivation to do such a horrific act.”
An recently conducted AP-NORC poll found that majorities of the Black and Hispanic populations in the U.S. still find themselves either somewhat worried or extremely worried over the pandemic, while more than half of white Americans responded with either being not too worried or not worried at all. Dr. Chris Pernell, the chief strategic integration and health equity officer at University Hospital, joined Cheddar News to talk about how perceptions of COVID-19 differ between groups of Americans. "We’re still seeing people get infected, and because of the toll of the disproportionate impact, we have concerns among the Black and brown community about whether or not they have an increased risk of exposure because of where they work, because of the use of public transportation, because they live in homes that they may not be able to safely quarantine and or isolate in, and because they have at baseline chronic health conditions that may make coronavirus more severe in those persons," she said.
Judith Enck, a former regional administrator for the EPA and the president of Beyond Plastics, joined Cheddar News to talk about the role of plastics in the climate crisis and California's investigation of ExxonMobil and other oil companies for misleading the public on the ability to recycle plastics. "The reason why petrochemical companies like Exxon have gotten away with selling more and more plastic is that they've lied to the public and told us don't worry about all those negative upstream impacts and downstream impacts of plastics. Just be sure to recycle it. Well, guess what? Plastics largely are not recycled," Enck said.
