US labor market will recapture all jobs lost during pandemic by end of August: analysis

The U.S. is expected to recover all jobs lost in the pandemic later this year, according to a new analysis. 

The Fitch Ratings report, first obtained by CNN on Monday, said it is “likely that all jobs lost at the onset of the pandemic will be fully recovered by Q3 2022,” which starts in July. 

The report noted, however, that the recovery has not been equal across states. All states except Hawaii and Louisiana have recovered at least 70 percent of the jobs lost at the peak of the pandemic.

Thirteen of those states, including Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Georgia, are already back to the job levels seen before the pandemic. 

But even as jobs have rebounded, Fitch warned that “acute labor shortages in many states” were a possibility, especially in the Midwest and West. The job openings to unemployed ratio was three times where it stood pre-pandemic in Nebraska, Utah and Montana. 

Employers have struggled to work around labor shortages in recent months as job openings, hires and quit rates all neared record highs set in December, according to the February Job Openings and Labor Turnover report. 

Some industries have been particularly hard-hit by labor shortages, including teachers of all levels. 

After years of teaching through the pandemic, burnout seemed to be the driving factor for teachers leaving the profession. 

A National Education Association survey found that 55 percent of educators, no matter their age or years of experience, planned to leave the profession earlier than expected due to pandemic-related stress.