Ever since Covid began the job market has been all over the place. Toward the start of the pandemic unemployment was at some of the highest rates it's ever been at. As this pandemic moved on jobs became less and less sought after as most companies were hiring people back and adding more than before to make up for the losses they endured from the pandemic. As of last year, unemployment was extremely low as there have begun to be more jobs than workers to fill those jobs. Now as of the end of March 2023, this trend of too many jobs and not enough workers is starting to slightly level out.
As of March 2023, 236,000 new jobs were created in the U.S. and unemployment only slightly declined from 3.6 percent to 3.5 percent. While low unemployment is typically a very good thing it can lead to a lot of different economic changes such as high inflation, which is why the FED and other organizations are attempting to even out this rate. March is a good sign in terms of things to come as it shows these organizations might be doing a good job in slowing this rate. The overall number of jobs created this month was actually less than expected by 2000.
Another topic regarding the labor market that should be confronted is wages. It was shown that over the past year wage percentage change per month has continued to lessen from 5.7% this time last year to 4.2% this month. This might be a cause of too many jobs as many are looking for second or third jobs which will cause these job increases to stay more steady. If companies pay their workers more, fewer jobs will be needed but that's a conversation for another time.
Article: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/07/jobs-report-march-2023.html
(originally posted 4/10 updated on 4/12 to say this post was for the 3/27- 4/9 period)
2 comments:
I find it interesting to read this data because all of the people that I know that are currently searching for a job post-graduation are struggling a bit. I would like to read up on what kind of employment is booming right now. I have read that African-American unemployment rates are the lowest in history which is good to hear.
Great post. I find it interesting how unemployment is so low yet we see action being made to contract the economy. I feel like the unemployment rate may be misleading as more people may have left the labor force. I think an important thing to look at is the LFPR and see the quantity of people employed. I do not have the number, but I am curious to see them.
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