Washington (AFP)

The labor market recovered somewhat in May in the United States, making us forget the disappointment linked to the previous month, but 7.6 million jobs are still missing, an argument for Joe Biden against the Republicans in the current negotiations in terms of infrastructure investments.

Last month, the US economy created 559,000 jobs, the Labor Department said on Friday.

This is twice as much as in April, a sign that the recovery is accelerating, but it is less than what analysts expected.

The good news is that nearly half of these new jobs have been created by companies in the leisure, restaurant and hotel sectors, those which have been hit hardest by the crisis.

President Joe Biden also hailed in a tweet "historic progress for American families and the economy".

But the labor market is still far from its pre-pandemic level, with 7.6 million jobs missing compared to February 2020, before the US economy was hit hard by the confinement intended to halt the progression of the Covid-19.

The unemployment rate is on the decline, after increasing last month for the first time in a year, to stand at 5.8% (-0.3 point).

This improvement is good news after very disappointing figures in April: only 278,000 jobs had been created, far from the million that was expected, a figure however revised upwards and published on Friday.

But "employment growth remains surprisingly slow in an economy that is no longer faced with capacity constraints," notes Rubeela Farooqi, chief economist for HFE.

- Return to the usual unemployment benefits -

For now, employers are still failing to convince some workers to return, especially in lower-paying jobs.

More than half of the American population, however, is now vaccinated against Covid, which allows bars, leisure complexes, amusement parks, to reopen at full speed.

Americans are reconnecting with leisure and travel: American airports even recorded their highest traffic since March 2020 at the end of May, during the extended Memorial Day weekend.

At the same time, fears related to Covid persist and, above all, not all schools are reopened full time, posing custody problems.

In addition, the positions offered do not always match the skills of job seekers.

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And unemployment benefits, more generous, accessible to the self-employed and to those who have exhausted their rights, do not encourage them to return to work, deplore the Republicans.

They will also, in most of the states they govern, reduce or eliminate this additional aid in the coming weeks.

This will mark the return to the usual benefit system which varies from state to state.

And of the 15 million people who still currently receive unemployment benefit, 2.3 million will then receive nothing, calculated Nancy Vanden Houten, analyst for Oxford Economics.

- Wage increase -

This labor shortage prevents many companies from resuming their activity at full capacity.

To attract candidates, they must therefore offer more: higher salaries, paid vacation or the possibility of teleworking when possible.

"Data from the past two months suggests that growing demand for labor associated with the recovery from the pandemic may have exerted upward pressure on wages," the Labor Department said.

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"The lesson here seems to be that employers either have to pay more - and perhaps a lot more - to attract (workers), or wait for the factors potentially responsible for driving people away from the labor market to fade away," he said. commented Ian Shepherdson, economist for Pantheon Macroeconomics.

To support the recovery, and create 16 million "well-paid" jobs, Joe Biden is counting on his gigantic infrastructure investment plan, which he is currently negotiating bitterly with the Republican opposition.

A new meeting is scheduled for the day.

The president even said he was ready to postpone his plan to raise corporate taxes to reach an agreement.

© 2021 AFP