Economic indicators

Notes: The number of officially unemployed includes the 5.7 million baseline unemployment level prior to COVID. The number of unemployed but misclassified includes the 2.7 million estimated undercount of the unemployed prior to the start of COVID based on Ahn and Hamilton (2021). The 5.7 million and the 2.7 million are included in the calculation of those hit by COVID because job search was made much more difficult by the labor market impacts of the recession. Totals may not sum due to rounding.

Source: EPI analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey public data series. Adapted from Figure A in The economy President-elect Biden is inheriting (Shierholz 2021).

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Jobs and unemployment

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