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**DECEMBER 6, 2021**

Kuttner on TAP

A Closer Look at the Labor Market

The job recovery is on track, but not in the health and education
professions.

One of the more interesting numbers in the mixed jobs report for
November was the growth in the number of people coming back into the
labor force, either with jobs or looking for jobs. Higher wages,
especially in the service sector, are helping to bring them back.

The unemployment rate fell, from 4.6 percent to 4.2 percent, even as
more people joined the labor force. But while the trend is good, we are
still below pre-pandemic numbers on every major indicator.

Some 3.9 million workers are still out of the labor force as a result of
COVID. The employment-to-population ratio rose again in November, to
78.8 percent, but is still below its pre-COVID rate of 80.4 percent.
Wages are up, especially in retail and hotels, but real wage growth for
the economy as a whole still lags inflation.

We are broadly on track to a full recovery by mid- to late 2022, but
that is not true of every sector. One chilling statistic in the November
jobs report: The number of people employed in education and health
services is still 793,000 below its pre-COVID levels.

Some of this is the result of temporary school closures, but most of it
reflects the deplorable treatment of nurses, other health workers, and
teachers. Nearly 1 in 5 health care workers have simply left

the profession, in a pandemic when they are desperately needed.

The fault is not federal policy-extra money from ARPA went to the
health sector. It's the fault of for-profit hospitals and nursing
homes that would prefer profit maximization to adequate staffing ratios.
Some teachers have also left their profession as a result of similar
workplace frustrations, as schools are expected to adapt to COVID
conditions with insufficient resources.

If we were serious about dealing with the consequences of COVID, we
would treat nurses and teachers like the heroes they are. Build Back
Better needs maximum funding, and we need even more support for
frontline workers in education and health.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

Robert Kuttner's latest book is
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.

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Biden has empowered a crop of aggressive financial regulators.
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God Save the United States and This Honorable Court

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BY SCOTT LEMIEUX

Abortion and the Beginning of the End of the Right to Privacy

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Women's Health Organization sets the stage for more restrictive
policies. BY GABRIELLE GURLEY

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