390,000 jobs were added in May, which beat expectations and performed much better than economists had predicted. With such a strong labor market, the Federal Reserve has been encouraged to increase interest rates even faster to fight inflation. Yet the unemployment rate has remained around 3.6%, which is incredibly low.
We have seen some signs of layoffs and a slowdown in hiring by some of the larger retail, automobile dealers and e-commerce businesses such as Amazon, Walmart and Tesla, however we don’t expect there to be a significant change in the job market in the near term.
The labor market posted 11.4 million job openings in April, which is almost two times the amount of unemployed job seekers.
Workers are continuing to leverage the market to obtain new jobs, with higher compensation and more flexibility.
While we do not appear to be in a recession at this time, clearly a recession could have a significant impact on the job market and the overall economy.
For suggestions on how to be prepared for a recession, or just how to hire more effectively in this job market, feel free to contact: Michael F. Rosenblatt, President of The Quest Organization at: michael.rosenblatt@questorg.com
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