A new report from the Labor Department has been released, revealing that the economy in the month of November added 245,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dipped down to 6.7 percent.

The gains were experienced were significantly less than what forecasters had expected, and made November the weakest for monthly hiring since April. The stunted growth in hiring largely has to do with renewed business restrictions due to the rise in COVID-19 cases.

via Washington Examiner:

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“My concern is we’re not seeing evidence that there are new employers opening and creating brand new jobs. … We’re still backfilling the 10 million jobs that we’re still short from February,” said Jane Oates, the president of WorkingNation, a nonprofit campaign focused on employment, and a former U.S. Department of Labor official in the Obama administration.

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The labor market has recovered over half of the 22 million jobs lost in the spring due to the pandemic. Oates said that with the current pace of employment, the country will not return to pre-pandemic employment levels for at least another year.

“Do the math: It’ll take us almost a year [from now] to get back to where we were in February,” she said.

Meanwhile, the number of long-term unemployed increased by 385,000 in November to 3.9 million and accounts for 36.9% of the total unemployed. Workers also left the job market last month, as the participation rate edged down to 61.5% and is 1.9% below its level in February, before the pandemic hit the nation.

The number of individuals who are currently sidelined but want to have a job saw a massive increase of 448,000 jumping to 7.1 million. This is 2 million higher than the number back in February.

What this is all saying is that the coronavirus isn’t just killing people, it’s also driving a stake through the heart of the economy as well. With cases on the rise and many areas going back under lockdown, things are likely to get worse before they get better.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that we are woefully unprepared to handle issues of this magnitude. We are too quick to try extreme measures that could destroy a vital part of our society without taking the proper time needed to gather information and make sensible, reasonable choices that will protect folks at risk from illnesses like the coronavirus without destroying our economy.