US has long way to go to recover from COVID pandemic: Commerce secretary

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has said many Americans are still struggling to return to work as millions of jobs were perished by the coronavirus pandemic.

Raimondo said, "I think we have a long way to go to recover from the pandemic."

"There are so many Americans still struggling" and 8 million fewer jobs than there were before the pandemic, she added.

Raimondo noted that last week’s lower-than-expected jobs numbers were a reflection of that.

The US Labor Department reported 266,000 new jobs were created in April, a fraction of the nearly 1 million jobs economists expected. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said, "The disappointing April jobs report highlights the urgent need to pass President Biden’s American Jobs and Families Plans," referring to the White House's proposals for about $4 trillion in additional spending on infrastructure, education and other priorities.

The US job growth is likely restrained by shortages of workers and raw materials, some US media reports said.

Raimondo rejected some Republicans' contention that people are reluctant to return to work because they are receiving unemployment insurance.

"The number one reason now that people aren't going back to work is what you said: fear. Or if they can't find childcare or schools are still closed," the US Commerce Secretary noted.

Republican Governor of South Carolina Henry McMaster has called for an end to the federal unemployment benefit programs related to the pandemic by the end of June this year

McMaster said the additional unemployment benefits had “turned into a dangerous federal entitlement,” blaming the Biden administration for not realizing its effects on the state.

“South Carolina’s businesses that have survived the pandemic — both large and small, and including those in the hospitality, tourism, manufacturing, and health care sectors — now face an unprecedented labor shortage.”

The Republican governors claimed the jobless programs are deterring people from returning to the workforce, causing labor shortages.

He said South Carolina will end participation in the federal jobless benefits, which Congress passed last year when the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the national economy and destroyed jobs market.

The decision came two days after Montana Governor Greg Gianfort made the same move.

According to a projection by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), it will take the US economy until 2030 to restore the jobs lost to the pandemic, and return the unemployment rate to pre-COVID levels.

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