Economic Trends | Senior Housing
By: Beth Mace | April 05, 2021
The first Friday of the month at 8:30 ET is widely anticipated as the Labor Department presents a fresh gauge of the most recent economic performance in its release of the labor report for the prior month. Today’s number was even more closely watched since it indicates how quickly the economy is bouncing back from the year-long pandemic. In its release, the Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls rose by 916,000 in March and that the unemployment rate edged lower to 6.0% from 6.2% in February. The jobless rate remains 2.5 percentage points above the pre-pandemic level of 3.5% seen in February 2020, but well below the 14.7% peak seen in April. Despite the February increase, job levels are 8.4 million (5.5%) below the pre-pandemic levels of February 2020. The consensus estimates for February had been for a gain of 660,000. Private service-producing jobs increased by 780,000, led by a rise of 280,000 jobs in leisure and hospitality payrolls as pandemic-related restrictions began to be relaxed and restaurants re-openings occurred. The resumption of in-person learning translated into a combined 190,000 increase in state, local government, and private education employment. Health care added 11,500 jobs in March. Within healthcare, nursing care facilities gained 1,700 jobs in March.
Market Trends | Senior Housing
By: Beth Mace | March 22, 2021
The total investment return for the seniors housing sector was a positive 0.71% in the fourth quarter of 2020. This marked the second consecutive quarterly gain after one quarter of negative returns in the second quarter of 2020 when total returns were negative 1.00%; that marked the first negative total return since 2012 and prior to that in 2009.
Economic Trends | Senior Housing
By: Beth Mace | March 08, 2021
The Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls rose by 379,000 in February and that the unemployment rate edged lower to 6.2% from 6.3% in January. The jobless rate remains 2.7 percentage points above the pre-pandemic level of 3.5% seen in February 2020, but well below the 14.7% peak seen in April. Despite the February increase, job levels are 9.5 million below the pre-pandemic levels of February 2020 (6.2%), with 3.5 million of that gap in the leisure and hospitality sectors. The consensus estimates for February had been for a gain of 200,000. Private service-producing jobs increased by 513,000, led by a rise of 355,000 jobs in leisure and hospitality payrolls as pandemic-related restrictions began to be relaxed and restaurant re-openings occurred. Health care added 20,000 jobs in January; this followed a loss of 85,000 in January. Nursing care facilities lost 12,000 jobs in February.
Economic Trends | Senior Housing
By: Beth Mace | February 05, 2021
The Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls inched up by 49,000 in January and that the unemployment rate fell 0.4 percentage points to 6.3%. The consensus estimates for January had been for a gain of 105,000 jobs. Through January, 9.9 million jobs have been lost since February. Health care declined by 39,000 jobs in January, with losses in nursing care facilities (down 19,000), home health care services (down 13,000) and community care facilities for the elderly (down 7,000). Since February, health care employment is down by 542,000.
