The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the US economy. Headlines highlighting a return to economic growth mask a deeply unequal recovery for workers. While 75 percent of GDP losses have been recouped as of November 2020, only 60 percent of job losses have been recovered, and improved unemployment numbers fail to account for the fact that permanent job losses (such as layoffs) doubled in the first nine months of the pandemic. This dynamic mirrors a trend observed after recessions in 2001 and 2008, when the United States faced “jobless recoveries.”
