Unemployment is down, but job market looks increasingly bleak, Ethan Wolff-Mann, Senior Writer, Yahoo Finance, 10/2/20

... Pantheon chief economist Ian Shepherdson’s one-line summary: “Momentum fading; October will be much weaker.”

Permanent job losses increasing -- In the last jobs report before the presidential election, the data showed many people had stopped looking for jobs – and were therefore not officially counted as being in the labor force – and that permanent job losses ballooned by 345,000 to 3.8 million. Around two-thirds of these permanent losses — which are defined by layoffs lasting 27 weeks or more — have come since February because of pandemic-related shutdowns.

... "The rate of employment has clearly slowed, as the resurgence of the virus has constrained the pace of reopening, and the early signs for October are not encouraging."

Women also fared exceptionally poorly in this month’s job report, losing 143,000 jobs, but also dropping out of the workforce at the highest rate since the pandemic began.

... “The virus is in the driver's seat in controlling the speed of the recovery and right now the economy is in the slow lane unless Congress and the White House can settle their differences and provide additional stimulus to support those jobless Americans who have lost their paychecks and livelihoods and hope,” Rupkey wrote.

More: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/unemployment-is-down-but-job-market-looks-increasingly-bleak-165708559.html