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In October 2021, 7.9 percent of people who were not in the labor force but wanted to work were prevented from looking for a job because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was down from 52.6 percent in May 2020, the first month these data were collected. To be counted as unemployed, a person must be actively looking for work or on temporary layoff.
Month | Total, 16 years and older | 16 to 24 years | 25 to 54 years | 55 years and older | Men | Women |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
May 2020 |
52.6% | 48.4% | 57.6% | 48.2% | 51.9% | 53.3% |
Jun 2020 |
43.3 | 39.0 | 46.9 | 41.8 | 41.0 | 45.5 |
Jul 2020 |
38.4 | 38.3 | 37.6 | 40.1 | 39.3 | 37.7 |
Aug 2020 |
32.6 | 28.3 | 35.5 | 31.6 | 30.9 | 34.2 |
Sep 2020 |
29.9 | 19.8 | 34.2 | 30.9 | 28.9 | 30.8 |
Oct 2020 |
26.0 | 19.9 | 28.9 | 26.0 | 23.4 | 28.3 |
Nov 2020 |
28.4 | 20.3 | 31.4 | 29.8 | 26.9 | 29.9 |
Dec 2020 |
30.8 | 27.4 | 34.4 | 27.5 | 29.2 | 32.3 |
Jan 2021 |
29.8 | 22.1 | 32.9 | 31.2 | 27.8 | 31.5 |
Feb 2021 |
26.0 | 17.5 | 28.2 | 29.0 | 22.7 | 29.0 |
Mar 2021 |
22.0 | 19.9 | 20.6 | 26.6 | 21.1 | 22.8 |
Apr 2021 |
18.5 | 12.0 | 20.9 | 21.0 | 15.9 | 20.9 |
May 2021 |
16.5 | 9.0 | 20.7 | 18.7 | 14.3 | 18.6 |
Jun 2021 |
9.3 | 3.6 | 12.1 | 11.1 | 7.5 | 11.0 |
Jul 2021 |
9.3 | 5.8 | 10.2 | 11.1 | 7.9 | 10.5 |
Aug 2021 |
11.4 | 4.9 | 13.1 | 14.2 | 9.6 | 12.7 |
Sep 2021 |
8.4 | 3.7 | 10.1 | 10.1 | 5.8 | 10.4 |
Oct 2021 |
7.9 | 4.8 | 9.1 | 8.6 | 7.4 | 8.3 |
The share of people who were not in the labor force and wanted a job but did not look for work because of the pandemic varied across age groups. In October 2021, a smaller percentage of people ages 16 to 24 did not look for work because of the pandemic (4.8 percent), compared with people ages 25 to 54 (9.1 percent) and those age 55 and older (8.6 percent).
Women who wanted a job were more likely than men to be prevented from looking for work due to the pandemic in October.
For all groups, the share of people not in the labor force who wanted a job but were prevented from looking for work because of the pandemic is substantially lower than in May 2020.
These data are from the Current Population Survey and are not seasonally adjusted. For more information, see Supplemental data measuring the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the labor market.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, People not looking for work because of COVID-19 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2021/people-not-looking-for-work-because-of-covid-19.htm (visited December 08, 2024).