#Take care in reopening amid COVID-19 — but keep the job gains coming

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President Trump appeared in the White House briefing room today to discuss the nation’s falling unemployment rate.
UPI

June saw the largest one-month jobs gains — and biggest drop in unemployment — in American history. That’s a clear sign the nation’s careful reopening is seeing success — and needs to continue.

Payrolls swelled by 4.8 million, leading to a more than two-point decrease in the unemployment rate, to 11.1 percent.

That beat expectations and then some: Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had predicted just a 2.9 million increase in payrolls and an unemployment rate of 12.4 percent.

Leisure and hospitality (a sector devastated by the lockdowns) led the way, with 2.1 million jobs added, about 40 percent of the total.

Plenty of other industries are seeing gains, too — indeed, very few are still cutting jobs. Notably, manufacturing is roaring back, with six-figure job gains.

More good news: Black unemployment fell 1.4 percent (to 15.4 percent), and Hispanic unemployment fell 3.1 percent (to 14.5 percent).

It’s the second straight month of record-setting numbers. Payrolls rose by 2.7 million in May, for a total of 7.5 million jobs added in two months.

All that good news is mainly jobs regained after the lockdowns brought the largest job losses in US history — but millions more still need regaining.

Yet worries about rising coronavirus cases are leading some areas to pause or retreat on reopening, and that may mean trouble: New unemployment claims hit 1.4 million last week, a bit above expectations, and continuing claims rose slightly, to 19.3 million.

So the last thing we want to do now is slam the door shut again. By pushing hard for large-scale usage of masks, protecting the vulnerable like elderly in nursing homes, we can keep the economy open — and bring all the jobs back.