Line chart showing how unemployment and inflation have varied, from 1970 to today, plus a projection into the future showing what an economic soft landing would look like.
At first, Covid-19 dealt a hammer blow to the U.S. economy. America lost 22 million jobs between February and April of 2020. And many analysts worried that the pandemic might leave “lasting scars” in the form of reduced employment, lower output and more.

At this point, however, both total employment and the share of adults in the labor force are right in line with projections made before the pandemic struck.