Adrift in April

Low employment rates and low labour participation rates leave enough people free to participate in endless political rallies and mammoth religious congregations

Fast-frequency labour statistics indicate that labour market conditions have been deteriorating in April 2021. This is evident from the daily 30-day moving average estimates and the weekly estimates of three major labour market ratios during the month. The three ratios are the labour participation rate (LPR), the employment rate and the unemployment rate.
 
For reference, we note that in March 2021, the labour participation rate was 40.2 per cent, the employ­ment rate was 37.6 per cent and the unemployment rate was 6.5 per cent. The labour participation rate was 2.5 percent points lower than the average of 2019-20 and