If you ask this question to my 24-year-old granddaughter, who has been laid off from her job as an event planner with a major hotel chain since March, she would say unequivocally that it’s “lousy.”

So would millions of other Americans who have been adversely impacted by the fallout of the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic. Recent studies have shown that at the height of the pandemic, 50% of workers living in the United States had either lost their jobs, had their hours cut or had to take a pay cut.

The picture has been improving gradually since April when the unemployment rate soared to 16.2% in the four-county Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Metropolitan Statistical Area. The counties are Carbon, Northampton, Lehigh and Warren County, New Jersey.

The most recent numbers show that although the unemployment rate dropped from July’s 12.8% to 10.5% in August, the A-B-E area comes in 12th when compared to the other 16 areas in the state.

By county, the unemployment rate was 9.8% in Northampton, 10.4% in Carbon and 10.7% in Lehigh.

The East Stroudsburg MSA, which includes all of Monroe County and the majority of the Poconos region which relies heavily on tourism and entertainment, still has the highest unemployment of any region in the state with 12.8%. This is off its high of 16.8% in April. The number employed in tourism and entertainment in the Poconos is off by 22% compared to a year ago.

The State College MSA, which includes Penn State University, had the lowest unemployment rate in the state for August at 6.1%, followed by Gettysburg at 7.1% and Lancaster at 7.9. The Williamsport MSA, which includes Schuylkill County, was at 10%. The Scranton-Wilkes-Barre-Hazleton MSA came in next to last with 11.5% unemployed.

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate in August was 10.3% compared to the national rate of 8.4%.

In September, the national unemployment rate dropped to 7.9%. September numbers for Pennsylvania areas will be released later in October. Despite what might look like a rosier number as the unemployment rate has been dropping for several months, economists warn that many Americans have given up looking for work, among them working mothers who have had to quit their jobs to take care of their school-age children. The government does not consider a person unemployed if he or she is not looking for a job.

An analysis by the Center for American Progress said about one in three millennial mothers who were unemployed reported that it was because they were unable to access child care or needed to care for children who were not in school. This number was expected to improve slightly starting with September figures for those families whose children attend in-person classes, but even some of these children are on a hybrid schedule where they are not in school five days a week.

“The coronavirus pandemic is stretching millennial parents to the breaking point and may set maternal labor force participation back decades,” the researchers concluded.

The jobs report released on Oct. 8 showed Another 840,000 Americans sought unemployment insurance the previous week, according to the Labor Department.

The initial claims data reflect a labor market still suffering some seven months into the coronavirus pandemic. This is the 29th straight week of weekly unemployment claims coming in above the pre-pandemic record set in 1982.

Also troubling was the finding that 3.8 million jobs are gone for good. For example, 17,000 restaurants have closed their doors because of government restrictions and poor sales during the pandemic, and thousands more are threatened.

Prospective voters have told pollsters that the economy is their top priority. Before the pandemic, the country was showing the lowest unemployment rate in decades, but since then unemployment has grown to historic highs. The turnaround has been stunning and has been pinned exclusively on the novel coronavirus pandemic.

In a Gallup poll last month when respondents were asked “how is the economy,” 5% said excellent (compared to 15% in March), 26% said good (compared to 39%), 35% said fair (compared to 35%) and 34% said poor (compared to 11%).

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com