6A — THE OBSERVER
SATURDAY, JUNE 6, 2020
NATION/STATE
U.S. unemployment drops unexpectedly to a still-high 13.3%
Economy added 2.5 million jobs in May
By Christopher Rugaber
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — U.S.
unemployment dropped
unexpectedly in May to
13.3% as reopened busi-
nesses began recalling mil-
lions of workers faster than
economists had predicted,
triggering a rally Friday on
Wall Street and giving Pres-
ident Donald Trump some-
thing to boast about amid
his reelection bid.
The jobless rate is still
on par with what the nation
witnessed during the Great
Depression. And for the
second straight month, the
Labor Department acknowl-
edged making errors in
counting the unemployed
during the coronavirus out-
break, saying the real fi gure
is even worse than the num-
bers indicate.
Still, after weeks of
dire predictions by econo-
mists that unemployment
in May could hit 20% or
more, the news that the
economy added a sur-
prising 2.5 million jobs last
month was seen as evidence
that the collapse may have
bottomed out in April at
14.7% and that a recovery
is well underway as states
loosen their lockdowns
and let stores, restaurants,
gyms and other businesses
reopen.
“We are witnessing the
easiest phase of growth as
people come off temporary
layoffs and come back to
their employers,” said Har-
vard University economist
Jason Furman, who led the
White House Council of
Economic Advisers during
the Obama presidency.
“And once employers are
done recalling people, the
much harder, longer work
of recovery will have to
proceed.”
Most economists had
expected rehiring to kick in
as shutdowns were increas-
ingly lifted and people
gradually resumed shop-
ping and eating out.
“The surprising thing
here is the timing and that
it happened as quickly as it
Photo by Keith Srakocic/Associated Press
Stylist Kayla Addink arranges items in her workspace
Thursday, June 4, as she prepares for her fi rst day back
on the job at the West View Barber Shop when most of
southwest Pennsylvania loosens COVID-19 restrictions on
Friday in West View, Pennsylvania.
did,” said Adam Kamins,
senior regional economist at
Moody’s Analytics.
On Wall Street, the S&P
500 was up 2.6% around
midday on the news.
An exultant Trump
seized on the report as evi-
dence that the economy is
going to come back from
the coronavirus crisis like a
“rocket ship.”
“This shows that what
we’ve been doing is right,”
said the president, who has
pushed governors aggres-
sively to reopen their econ-
omies amid warnings
from public health offi cials
that the country is risking
a second wave of infec-
tions on top of the one that
has killed over 100,000
Americans.
Still, the job market is
in such a deep hole that it
could take years to dig out,
economists say. Most are
forecasting unemployment
in the high single-digits or
low double-digits by the
end of this year.
Economists had
expected the government
to report that employers
shed 8.5 million more jobs
in May on top of the 21.4
million lost in March and
April.
Instead, nearly all indus-
tries added jobs, a sharp
reversal from April, when
almost all cut them. Hotels
and restaurants added
1.2 million jobs in May,
after shedding 7.5 million.
Retailers gained 368,000,
after losing nearly 2.3 mil-
lion in the previous month.
Construction companies
added 464,000 after cutting
995,000.
The crisis has also
exposed wide dispari-
ties: While the unem-
ployment rate for white
Americans was 12.4%
in May, it was 17.6% for
Hispanics and 16.8% for
African-Americans.
Economists warn that
until most Americans
are confi dent they can
shop, travel, eat out and
fully return to their other
spending habits without fear
of contracting the virus, the
economy is likely to remain
sluggish.
Erica Groshen, a labor
economist at Cornell Uni-
versity and a former com-
missioner of the Labor
Department’s Bureau of
Labor Statistics, said hiring
could ramp up relatively
quickly in the coming
months and reduce unem-
ployment to low dou-
ble-digits by year’s end.
“Then my inclination is
that it will be a long, slow
slog,” she said.
Gwyneth Duesbery, 22,
returned this week to her
job as a restaurant hostess
in Grand Rapids, Mich-
igan, as Bowdie’s Chop
House prepares to reopen
with tables 6 feet apart and
seating capacity reduced to
about one-quarter.
“I am concerned that it
will expose me to potential
diseases, and expose others,
no matter the precautions
that we take,” she said. “It’s
kind of uncharted waters.”
Miracle-Ear
Hearing Aid Sale
Cities rethink
school police
amid protests
By Gillian Flaccus
Associated Press
PORTLAND — Ore-
gon’s largest school district
no longer will have police
offi cers in its schools and
joins a handful of urban dis-
tricts from Minneapolis to
Denver that are rethinking
their school resource offi cer
programs amid national
outrage over the death of
George Floyd.
Superintendent Gua-
dalupe Guerrero said
Thursday that Portland
Public Schools needed to
“re-examine our relation-
ship” with the police in
light of protests over the
death of Floyd, a hand-
cuffed black man who died
after a white Minneap-
olis police offi cer pressed
his knee into his neck for
nearly nine minutes.
The district of more than
49,000 students joins Min-
neapolis, which severed
ties with its school resource
offi cers on Tuesday. Dis-
tricts in St. Paul, Minnesota
and Denver are considering
doing the same. Protesters
in Charlottesville, Virginia,
have made the end of the
school resource offi cer pro-
gram in their district one of
their demands.
Portland Mayor Ted
Wheeler said Thursday
he also would discontinue
using school resource offi -
cers in two smaller met-
ropolitan districts under a
program that costs the city
$1.6 million a year.
The move is in response
to the demands of thou-
sands of protesters, many
of them young, who have
fi lled the streets of Ore-
gon’s largest city for six
consecutive nights. Having
the offi cers in high schools
has been a touchy topic for
several years in this lib-
eral city. Students have pro-
tested in recent years for an
end to the program, at one
point even overwhelming a
school board meeting.
Beyond their law
enforcement role, the model
for school resource offi cers
endorsed by the U.S. Justice
Department enlists them
also as mentors, informal
counselors and educators
on topics ranging from
bullying to drunk driving
with the goal of promoting
school safety.
But critics of the concept
say the offi cers’ presence
can lead to the criminaliza-
tion of students, particularly
students of color, who may
be labeled as troublemakers
for things such as not
paying attention in class,
using a cellphone or other
minor infractions. In 2015,
a school resource offi cer in
South Carolina was caught
on video fl ipping a female
student to the fl oor and
dragging her across a class-
room after she refused to
surrender her cellphone.
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