Let’s Compare The U.S. Economy Before The Pandemic To The U.S. Economy Today
Francesco Abbruzzino, The Uncensored Report, LLC
Throughout the first half of 2021, there was a tremendous amount of optimism about the U.S. economy. Many believed that the pandemic would soon be behind us and that a new era of great prosperity would soon be upon us. But now the optimism that we witnessed is fading as Americans become increasingly concerned about inflation, shortages and rising debt levels. Our leaders created, borrowed and spent trillions upon trillions of dollars in a desperate attempt to get our economy back on track, and it turns out that all of that money didn’t really have the enormous impact that they had hoped. On the other hand, inflation is now beginning to spiral out of control, and many are comparing this time in our history to the Jimmy Carter era of the 1970s.
In this article, I would like to compare the state of the economy today to the state of the economy just before the pandemic started sweeping across the country.
As you will see, it appears that a tremendous amount of long-term damage has been done.
Let’s start by talking about employment. Just before the pandemic hit, 152 million Americans were employed, but today only 145 million Americans are currently employed.
Many economists are telling us that it will probably take a number of years for employment to return to pre-pandemic levels, but that also assumes that we will not be facing another major economic downturn in the near future.
Needless to say, I do not share that rosy assessment.
The number of Americans that are considered to be “not in the labor force” has also not returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Just before the pandemic, 95 million Americans were considered to be “not in the labor force”, but now that number is up to more than 100 million.
We are being told that unemployment is “low” in this country even though more than 100 million people do not have jobs right now.
But according to John Williams of shadowstats.com, if honest numbers were being used the unemployment rate would currently be above 25 percent.
