The job market has remained strong despite increasing inflation and interest rates, according to a November report from the Labor Department.
Key Details
- The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) from November revealed that demand for employment remains high despite worries about recession.
- The JOLTS report revealed that there are nearly 10.46 million available positions across the U.S.
- This number is a 54,000 drop from October’s survey but above the previously predicted available openings.
- JOLTS are one of the tools that the Federal Reserve uses to monitor the labor market. The continued high demand for employees indicates that the economy is not slowing as much as the Fed hoped.
- At the same time, U.S. manufacturing shrank for the second month in a row.
Why it’s news
While the JOLTS report did indicate that layoffs are becoming more frequent and hiring is trending downward, the changes are not significant enough to indicate an overall softening of the labor market. This could result in the Fed continuing to hike interest rates.
The number of employees quitting their jobs increased slightly, showing that workers are still confident that they can find a new position after quitting their current employment.
JOLTS also revelated that there are more open positions than available employees. For every job seeker, there were 1.74 jobs available. Nondurable goods manufacturing vacancies increased by 39,000. Professional and business services saw available openings grow by 212,000.
The finance and insurance sector saw a decrease of 75,000 available openings. These industries have been affected more than others by the increased borrowing costs. Job openings in the federal government also fell by 44,000.
Overall, hiring decreased slightly, but the healthcare and social assistance sector’s hiring increased by 74,000.