Yes, the past year-plus has been a difficult period for millions of workers in the United States. Certainly, COVID-19 has a taken a toll. Nonetheless, the U.S. remains a top work destination. Based on recent research in 190 countries.
First, we look at some U.S. employment data. Then, we show the top global work destinations,
U.S. Unemployment: How We Stand Now
As Felix Richter reports for Statista:
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. economy with full force in late March 2020, it erased nearly 20 million jobs in a matter of weeks. At that time, many hoped that this crisis would go away as quickly as it had arrived. Some sectors recovered relatively quickly once restrictions were eased and businesses could reopen in the summer. Yet, we are now 12 months into the crisis and the U.S. labor market is still almost 10 million jobs short of its pre-pandemic level.
As the following chart shows, the vast majority of those lost jobs are service-providing jobs, With the leisure and hospitality sector alone accounting for 3.5 million of the total 8.5 million lost service sector jobs. With new cases currently easing up and the vaccine rollout picking up pace, there’s reason for hope that a lot of jobs at restaurants, bars, and cafés will return over the next few months. For now, however the road to recovery remains long and rocky.
According to research, the unemployment rate is improving.
Even with the Pandemic: The U.S. Remains a Top Work Destination
Despite the above events, the U.S. remains a top work destination. Regardless of some perceptions otherwise.
For this information, Claire Jenik (a Statista reporter) notes the following. [Please keep in mind that the United States has only dropped to second on the list. Behind just Canada. And ahead of all European and Asian countries.]
The pandemic has had a major impact on people’s attitudes toward working abroad. It reduced their interest generally. While causing them to favor countries doing the best job of containing the coronavirus. A new study by Boston Consulting Group and The Network reveals that the U.S. lost its top status as the most appealing work destination for expats. The country fell to second rank behind Canada. This year’s survey included almost 209,000 participants in 190 countries. It also shows that only about 50 percent of people will to move to another country for work.
Almost all of the countries that moved up in the top ten ranking — Canada, Australia, and Japan — had relatively low incidences of COVID-19. With Singapore and New Zealand, two new countries that have won praise for their pandemic management entering the top 10 for the first time.
In Europe, high infection numbers are likely the reason why Italy, France, and Spain fell in the ranking. While all three were part of the top ten of work destinations in 2014 and 2018, only France remained on the list in 2020. Despite the relatively good management of the first COVID-19 wave, Germany’s image seems to have been tarnished by the European Union’s overall number of coronavirus cases. However, the country remains the top work destination in Europe.
