Today’s issue of WorkCompRecap features the release of a new edition of NCCI’s Quarterly Economics Briefing, which examines the current state of the economy and the implications for workers’ comp insurance.
Key highlights from this edition included that private sector employment closed to within 1 million of its pre-pandemic level in March, and net of Leisure and Hospitality with 1.4 million fewer jobs, employment in the rest of the US economy is higher than before the pandemic. NCCI also notes that the the period of post-COVID economic recovery is over – with unemployment below 4%, a tight labor market, and price inflation, the US economy is running at full employment but with a smaller labor force than in pre-pandemic times. The report further explores the change in size in the labor force, as including public workers and the unemployed, there were about 2 million fewer individuals in the labor force during the first quarter of 2022 than immediately prior to the COVID pandemic two years ago, which NCCI noted as extraordinary.