Delta Variant

After revisions to last month’s jobs report, we added just over 1 million new jobs to the economy in July, making the August number of 235,000 a bit of a disappointment. Internal Medicine’s Dr. Michael Hansen tells us why. Prior to the pandemic, that would be a pretty good figure. However, with total employment numbers still off more than 5 million from pre-pandemic levels, many were hoping for another 500K-plus figure during this recovery phase.

With the delta variant generating another surge, we have not returned to “all systems go.” On a recent drive from the East Coast to the Midwest and back, we ran into a wide variation in how states and firms approached the problem. In some, it was business as usual. No masks, everything open, have at it. In others, the lobby of the fast-food chain was completely closed, and one could only order via the drive-through.

Let’s discuss two distinct kinds of employment categories. One – food service – has been affected by the recent delta spike, the other – health care – may be moving toward a new “normal”.