Compare the impact of the Great Recession and Pandemic Recession on the labor market.Describe the impact of the unemployment policies during the pandemic on the number of insured unemployed.

• Compare the values of all variables in 2/20, 4/20, and 5/22. Look at the changes in the levels from 2/20 to 4/30 and 2/20 to 5/22. Examine the changes in the unemployment rate, LFP rate, and E-pop ratio over this period.
• Examine the change in Employment from 4/21 to 4/22 (highlighted in green). Notice that this is the net change after 78 million people were Hired and 71.6 million were Separated from their jobs over the course of this year! Very dynamic labor market.
• How does the labor market today compare to where it was before the pandemic? How does it compare to where it was in 4/20?

Levels, in thousands Feb-20 Apr-20 Apr-21 May-21 Apr-22 May-22 Change 4/21 to 4/22 Working Age Population 259,628 259,896 261,103 261,210 263,559 263,679 Labor Force 164,583 156,358 160,978 160,801 164,046 164,376 Employed 158,866 133,320 151,259 151,550 158,105 158,426 6,846 Unemployed 5,717 23,038 9,719 9,251 5,941 5,950 Not in Labor Force 95,045 103,538 100,125 100,409 99,513 99,302 Changes, in thousands Change Change Change Change 2/20 to 4/20 4/20 to 5/21 5/21 to 5/22 2/20 to 5/22 Working Age Population 268 1,314 2,469 4,051 Labor Force (8,225) 4,443 3,575 (207) Employed (25,546) 18,230 6,876 (440) Unemployed 17,321 (13,787) (3,301) 233 Not in Labor Force 8,493 (3,129) (1,107) 4,257 Rates, percent Unemployment Rate 3.5% 14.7% 6.0% 5.8% 3.6% 3.6% Labor Force Paricipation rate 63.4% 60.2% 61.7% 61.6% 62.2% 62.3% Employment-Population Ratio 61.2% 51.3% 57.9% 58.0% 60.0% 60.1% Levels, in thousands Feb-20 Apr-20 Apr-21 Apr-22 May-22 Change May-21 4/21 to 4/22 Employment 152,504 130,513 144,694 145,141 151,292 151,682 6,598 Total Hires over 12 months ending in April 78,000 Total Separations over 12 months ending in April 71,600 Net Employment Change 6,400