The unemployment rate rose to 4.3 percent in July, and
nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 114,000.
Employment continued to trend up in health care, in
construction, and in transportation and warehousing, while information lost jobs.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) changed little
at 1.5 million in July. This measure is up from 1.2 million a year earlier.
The unemployment rate rose by 0.2 percentage point to 4.3 percent in
July, and the number of unemployed people increased by 352,000
to 7.2 million. These measures are higher than a year earlier,
when the jobless rate was 3.5 percent, and the number of
unemployed people was 5.9 million.
Looking Forward:
In a continuation of a recent trend, job growth has narrowed to
a few sectors: health care, which added 55,000 jobs; and social
assistance, up 9,000. Construction continued its remarkable strength,
with an increase of 25,000 jobs fueled by investment in new housing.
Nonfarm payrolls grew by just 114,000 for the month, down from the downwardly revised
179,000 in June and below the Dow Jones estimate for 185,000.
While the survey of establishments used for the headline payrolls number was
discouraging, the household survey was even more so, with growth of just 67,000, while
the ranks of the unemployed swelled by 352,000.
Both Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have judged
that the labor market has returned to conditions seen before the pandemic. Powell on
Wednesday described this as “strong but not overheated.” He pointed out that back in 2019,
the US was not an inflationary economy, and the labor market wasn’t putting pressure on prices.
This week’s ISM manufacturing data was “bad.” Activity shrank in July by the most in eight months, prompting the
biggest employment cutback in four years. Manufacturers had already cut jobs in June, so it will be interesting to see
what happened in July.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics – The Employment Situation – July 2024
The unemployment rate ticked higher to 4.1% against expectations it would hold steady at 4.0%.
Job gains occurred in government, health care, social assistance, and construction.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) rose by 166,000 to 1.5 million in June. This measure is up from 1.1 million a year earlier. The long-term unemployed accounted for 22.2 percent of all unemployed people in June.
The number of people employed part time for economic reasons, at 4.2
million, changed little in June. These individuals, who would have
preferred full-time employment, were working part time because
their hours were reduced and were unable to find full-time jobs.
Looking Forward:
The unemployment rate unexpectedly climbed to 4.1%, tied for
the highest level since October 2021 and providing a conflicting sign
for Federal Reserve officials weighing their next move on monetary
policy. The forecast had been for the jobless rate to hold steady at 4%.
Though June job creation topped expectations, it was due in large part to a 70,000 surge in
government jobs. Also, health care, a consistent leader by sector, added 49,000 while
social assistance contributed 34,000 and construction was up 27,000. Several sectors
saw declines, including professional and business services (-17.000) and retail (-9,000).
“The job market is bending without yet breaking, which boosts the argument for rate
cuts,” said David Russell, global head of market strategy at TradeStation. “Things are not
too hot and not too cold. Goldilocks is here and September is in play” for a Fed rate cut.
Long-term unemployment rose sharply on the month, up 166,000 to 1.5 million, compared
with 1.1 million a year ago. The BLS said the share of long-term unemployed as a percentage of
the total jobless level was 22.2%, compared with 18.8% a year ago.
There have been recent signs of cracks in the labor market, with purchasing manager surveys showing
contraction in hiring for both the manufacturing and services sector.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics – The Employment Situation – June 2024
Maintaining a stable business model is best accomplished by maintaining the same workforce for months to even years at a time. By focusing on how your business can benefit your employees, you will ensure that those you hire will be willing to stay with you.
Studies show that the current job market is uniquely unpredictable. 75% of employers report that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to fill open positions. So, what do we do to ensure potential employees choose us or current employees stay with us for an extensive period? Focusing on employee retention options is the first and most crucial step.
Why Is Employee Retention Important?
Ensuring your business has a strong, steady, and stable workforce will ensure long-term success. It’s important to remember that hiring people willing to work for you for a longer period of time means your efforts can be focused on the bottom line instead of staffing and behind-the-scenes organization.
There are five things to keep in mind when considering why employee retention is vitally important for your company.
Reduced Company Costs – First and foremost, longer employment periods end up costing you less in the long run because you don’t have to spend money on onboarding costs at a more frequent rate.
Greater Productivity – It’s important to remember that keeping a steady workforce means your employees can rely on each other and work together as a team to get the job done. With frequent turnover, your employees are stuck training new employees instead of focusing more on the company’s overall productivity.
A Strong, Flourishing Work Culture – Overall, your employees’ motivation will remain positive and high if they see that their coworkers are sticking around. It shows that you respect, support, and appreciate everyone in the company.
Enhanced Employee Morale – When employees remain the same and a reliable unit, the morale across the board will be higher. Knowing that the people they work with will be there daily allows employees to feel more connected and motivated about their jobs.
Happier Customers – The longer an employee stays with your company, the more likely they will know how to interact with your customers. This, in turn, will allow your customers to rely on and trust your company and leave them more satisfied with the services being provided.
Important Strategies to Keep in Mind
We have previously posted about employee retention strategies. While many of these strategies have stayed the same, there are a few key differences that better match the working environment in 2024.
It is also important to point out that our strategies for hiring and retaining millennials can now be applied to all working individuals. What used to be exclusively the feelings and desires of a younger working audience are now found among all employees, from young to seasoned.
So, what strategies do we suggest? On the grand scale, our suggestions focus on things that uplift morale and employee motivation. Keeping that in mind, let’s get started!
Ensure Your Hiring Process is Quick & Efficient
J & J Staffing has consistently made this suggestion since 2022. We truly believe that the faster and more efficient your hiring process is, the more motivated people will be to work for you.
This becomes the easiest way to ensure that the people you hire will want to work for you specifically. In 2024, the most eligible employees are looking for employers who make them feel special, valued, and respected even during the hiring process.
Offer Flexible Work Arrangements
At the end of lockdown, late 2020 and early 2021, employers started to find that having either a work-from-home option or a hybrid setup was more motivating for their employees. This is due in large part to the flexibility they offer as a means to help productivity and employee happiness.
While we understand that not all businesses can offer either of those options to their employees, there are ways to make flexible work arrangements in every environment on a case-by-case basis. Taking the time to accommodate employees tells them you value their contributions and want to keep them happy and employed.
Offer Positive Feedback
Offering positive feedback seems like the littlest thing you can do, but it truly can make a significant impact. Employees need to feel that their efforts are seen, appreciated, and acknowledged.
Positive feedback starts you off on a positive note and fosters an overall positive, caring company culture. Starting with an employee’s strengths allows the areas they need to improve on to be better received.
Foster Creativity
Humans all want to feel like their ideas are worth something. Allowing your employees to make suggestions about company policies and procedures that directly impact their jobs will motivate them to care about what they are doing.
Sometimes, the best ideas for growth and development come from the people on the front lines performing the tasks day in and day out.
Encourage Mutual Respect
In recent years, more individuals have been looking for bosses and supervisors who treat people with respect and allow the same level of respect to be reflected back to them. While positions naturally create a hierarchy that needs to be in place for a business to operate properly, giving room for equality in other aspects can change the whole game.
Well-respected employees and supervisors are likely to come together and remain united in furthering the business goals. Respect goes a long way toward ensuring employees feel as though they have a voice and are valued at work.
Provide Growth Opportunities
It is proven that if employees feel they don’t have anywhere to grow in their job they will move on. No one wants to spend years doing the same work over and over without any potential for promotion or professional development.
Even if you are only offering the opportunity to expand their knowledge and expertise in their chosen field, you are ensuring employees will appreciate the service they are providing. Any amount of growth is beneficial and can keep your employees satisfied.
Offer a Competitive Salary
Along the same lines of promoting personal and professional growth, offering a competitive salary is important. You might find the perfect person to add to your company roster, but if you aren’t giving them financial compensation to match, they aren’t going to choose you.
If you aren’t consistently reassessing the salaries of all your employees against the current economy and job market, you also run the risk of losing long-term, loyal employees. They are going to go where the money is. It’s as simple as that.
Promote Trust & Transparency
In line with some other action items on this list, promoting an environment of trust and transparency is important. Every time your company makes a significant decision, it is best to inform your employees and open the floor up for feedback regarding said changes.
No one likes feeling blindsided by decisions affecting them, nor do they like feeling lied to. It takes zero extra time and effort to keep your employees informed and in the loop about anything regarding company policies and procedures.
Create a Collaborative and Open Culture
In 2024, the desire to work for a company where you truly feel like a unified team is at an all-time high. Employees want to have a positive work environment that feels completely balanced with their personal lives.
Feeling as though they have the support of their professional team ensures that employees are going to overlook any minor irritations they have about their jobs and remain with the company. In fact, with an open, respectful, and collaborative culture, employees are more likely to inform higher-ups about those things that irritate them in the workplace, allowing for changes to be enacted.
Identify & Alleviate Employee Pain Points
Listening to your employees is a significant way to take action today to ensure your employees remain part of your team. Everyone wants to be heard, especially when they spend most of their time on the job.
Showing employees that you care enough about them to listen to their concerns and make an effort to implement solutions allows them to be further motivated to meet productivity standards. A workforce that feels appreciated and heard is more likely to contribute 110% to the company goals and ensure the customers are happy.
Implement Changes Over Time
Finally, if you find that changes need to be made to current policies or procedures, make them over time. Most employees need time to adjust to anything new, so giving them the time to do so will boost their morale significantly.
Giving employees time to test out new changes and provide feedback on how well they work is also a great way to ensure your employees respect you and wish to stay with the company. They will more likely adhere to the changes and take pride in their work.
Work with J & J Staffing to Ensure You’re Hiring the Right Employees
One of the things J & J Staffing takes pride in is our ability to stay on top of the latest hiring and retention trends. This allows us to provide the best service for our clients.
If you have questions about how to ensure you’re hiring the right people or retaining the wonderful employees you already have, we are here to advise. Contact us for more information.
Staffing Services In Greater Philadelphia
J & J Staffing Resources is a professional staffing agency that connects local businesses to job seekers throughout the Greater Philadelphia area, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
We bring over 45 years of expertise in office, industrial, technical, and professional staffing placements as well as payroll management, and offer a wide range of services for both employers and job seekers.
Need help? J & J Staffing has offices in Newark, Bridgeport, Woodbury, Cherry Hill, Ewing, Princeton, Langhorne, and Horsham. Visit your local J & J staffing center or get started below.
The unemployment rate ticked higher to 4.0% against
expectations it would hold steady at 3.9%.
Employment continued to trend up in several industries, led by health care; government;
leisure and hospitality; and professional, scientific, and technical services.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more), at 1.4 million, changed little in May. The long-term unemployed accounted for 20.7 percent of all unemployed people.
Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 175,000 in
April, lower than the average monthly gain of 242,000 over the
prior 12 months.
Looking Forward:
Ever since the pandemic began to fade, surging employment has
helped the US economy stand out from its peers. New data on
Friday confirmed that trend by showing companies added about
272,000 staff members in May, far ahead of the 180,000 that economists
had expected. The bumper reading forced traders to recalibrate (again) on
when they expect the Federal Reserve may lower interest rates.
The largest job increases in Friday’s report were in healthcare, which added 68,000 jobs
in May. Meanwhile, government employment added 43,000 jobs, and leisure and
hospitality added 42,000 jobs.
Combine that with other readings on the labor market, and there’s a case to be made for
weakness. Job openings, for example, fell in April to the lowest level in more than three
years. Vacancies in health care fell to the lowest number in three years, while those for
manufacturing dropped to the lowest since the end of 2020.
Wage growth in May will keep the Federal Reserve focused on its inflation fight, dimming prospects for interest-rate
cuts in the foreseeable future. Americans’ average hourly earnings rose faster than expected in May, up 0.4% from the
previous month, according to the BLS on Friday, June 7th. That was 4.1% higher than a year ago and compared with
the consensus estimate of 0.3% growth
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics – The Employment Situation – May 2024
The unemployment rate ticked higher to 3.9% against expectations it would hold steady at 3.8%.
Job gains occurred in health care, in social assistance, and in transportation and warehousing.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or
more), at 1.3 million, was unchanged in April. The long-term unemployed accounted for 19.6 percent of all unemployed people.
Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 175,000 in
April, lower than the average monthly gain of 242,000 over the
prior 12 months.
Looking Forward:
The surprisingly weak report paints a picture of a job market that is
beginning to sputter as the result of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive
interest-rate hike campaign, and boosts the odds of rate cuts sooner
rather than later.
Consistent with recent trends, health care led job creation, with a
56,000 increase. Other sectors showing significant rises included social
assistance (31,000), transportation and warehousing (22,000), and retail (20,000).
Construction added 9,000 positions while government, which had shown solid gains in
recent months, was up just 8,000 after averaging 55,000 over the previous 12 months.
Higher prices have been putting upward pressure on wages, part of an inflation picture that has kept the Fed on the sidelines despite widespread market expectations that the central bank would be cutting interest rates aggressively this year.
The report also showed modest revisions to job gains earlier this year. Gains for February were revised down by a total
of 34,000 jobs to 236,000, the government said, while March’s gain was slightly higher at 315,000 jobs. Until Friday,
the labor market had remained historically tight over the past year, defying economists’ expectations for a slowdown.
Economists say it is beginning to cool after last year’s blistering pace, but is still nowhere near breaking
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics – The Employment Situation – April 2024
In the last few years, AI has become a big part of who we are and how we go about our everyday lives. From automated ordering and integrating processes into one easy-to-use software, AI has helped make our lives much more accessible.
So, why not expand your hiring efficiency as a company further? You might already be using it to ensure your business works fast, efficiently, and to the highest quality. Expanding AI into your day-to-day back-end operations will work wonders for your business and customer relationships.
What AI Means for the Future
You need to understand that AI technology isn’t going away. As time goes on, it will only expand and evolve to become more involved in certain processes of our lives. If you want to stay ahead of the game regarding recruitment, you need to ride this AI wave, not ignore it.
More and more businesses are looking at ways to make their recruitment process much quicker and more accurate. AI affords them the tools to do so. By utilizing this technology, other employers can rest easy knowing they’ve found the best candidate for the job and that their entire hiring process is as fast as it possibly can be.
But what is the best way to integrate AI into your business’ hiring process? After all, just like most things, AI takes an adjustment period to work out all the kinks and ensure you’re using it to the highest advantage for your company.
Here are some steps to consider when thinking about integrating AI into your hiring process.
Analyze Your Current Processes – The first step should always be to assess what you are currently doing. This way, you can determine the best way forward and the most effective use of AI for your business.
Select The Right Tools – Once you know where you currently stand, you can look at what AI tools are available to businesses and decide which ones might be the best for your recruitment process.
Get Your Team on Board – You don’t run your business alone, therefore, any AI decisions and implementation should also be run by your team. This allows them to provide feedback and gain much-needed information about the new processes and how they work.
Integrate AI Into Your Existing Systems – The next step is ensuring that your chosen AI program will integrate well with your current systems. The integration process can be confusing at first, so it’s essential to take your time and give it your full attention.
Do a Trial Run – We all know how important it is to test drive a new car before we buy it. Well, integrating AI into your hiring process deserves the same thing. You should always do an internal test run before making it official to ensure all the kinks are discovered and worked out.
Adjust Your New Process – Once you’ve completed your trial run, you can go back to the drawing board and smooth out any wrinkles you observed or that your team provided feedback on. This will ensure that the launch of your new hiring process will be successful.
Ready To Go – Now that you’ve completed all the previous steps, you are ready to launch your new process and see results. Just remember that everything needs monitoring to ensure it continues working effectively and efficiently.
Remember, as you integrate AI into your hiring process, you can do as little or as much as you want. AI can be utilized only on the candidate selection level or throughout your hiring process. Whatever you decide, AI is here to help through accurate candidate matching, faster screening processes, and predictive analytics.
Finding the Best Candidates Through AI
Starting small is an easy way to jumpstart your business’ integration with AI for recruiting. If you aren’t sure how much you want to rely on AI for the job recruitment part of your business, it’s very easy to try it out on candidate selection first.
As with all AI technology, humans should always be a backup for quality control and monitoring. When starting, AI candidate matching can be easily monitored and tested to see if AI is something that you want for your business staffing needs. AI can help you in significant ways to ensure the candidates you are interviewing are the best ones for the job, but if you go through the process and feel it isn’t doing enough, you can step in and try using AI in a different way.
Here are four simple ways to utilize AI to help find the best candidates for your open positions.
Predictive Analytics
With the immersion of AI, there have been advancements in analyzing data – in all areas of your business. This technology can also be used in recruitment. There are certain AI tools specific to recruitment that ensure employers are getting accurate data about their current and future employment needs.
AI technology can also predict whether or not a candidate will be successful in the job you offer. Over the years, employers have discovered that candidates with a resume that fits the job requirements aren’t always going to work out with their specific company. This is where AI predictive analytics comes in.
Using predictive analytics is a way to integrate AI into your business hiring process in a way that will benefit you now and in the future. This form of AI for recruiting will look at a candidate and assess not only their qualifications but also their work history and how they answer pre-screening questions to determine whether or not they will fit best with your company culture and goals.
Finding Candidates on Various Platforms
AI can also be a great tool to find candidates who might be looking for work but haven’t seen your exact job posting on their own. This allows you to expand your reach without any extra time taken out of your day to focus on combing other websites to find them.
By utilizing AI to comb job boards, job forums, and other professional business platforms such as LinkedIn, you are ensuring the best candidates are made aware of your openings without you having to spend the hours it would take to reach out to them manually. AI can do the work by sending these potential candidates an automated email describing your position and your business and allowing them the opportunity to submit their resumes and applications.
The work of this form of AI technology can take minutes, whereas doing it yourself could take hours. Utilizing AI here ensures that this portion of your hiring process can become even more streamlined and efficient with minimal effort.
Chatbots for Initial Candidate Screenings
Another great way to use AI to your advantage when it comes to finding the best candidates for your positions is through Chatbots. This tool, in particular, is ideal for doing those initial candidate screening questions to see how the candidate fairs beyond their resume.
Using a Chatbot will allow you to assess a candidate’s viability within your organization quickly. As stated above, a resume doesn’t always ensure that the candidate being presented will succeed at your company. By utilizing this AI recruitment tool, you can see how each candidate measures up against what you are looking for in your company culture and job requirements.
Using a Chatbot will work with the suggested predictive analytics advantage mentioned before.
Resume Screening
Integrating AI as a recruitment tool can be the most successful way to screen resumes. Running candidates’ resumes through an AI program to catch those who have the required qualifications will save you hours of manual labor going through each one on your own.
This tool will save you time and help eliminate the possibility that one candidate can be favored over another due to unconscious biases. Utilizing AI in this portion of your recruitment process ensures that the best candidates for the job are being selected for the next steps based on their resume and qualifications alone.
After all, a machine doesn’t know one name from the next. It ultimately gives each applicant a fair chance.
Using AI to Enhance Your Hiring Process
There are various ways that AI recruitment tools can be utilized beyond simply finding the right candidates for the job. Various AI tools can help you throughout your recruitment process, ensuring everything runs quickly and smoothly.
A few years ago, we published a blog talking about ways you could manually ensure that your recruitment process is the quickest and most efficient option for candidates. While at the time, we didn’t mention the use of AI to speed up your process, these suggestions paired with AI will ensure your process is quick, efficient, and reliable.
What AI tools can you utilize to ensure your entire process is as short and quick as possible? Take a look at the options below.
Video Interviewing Tools
Sometimes, the interview process is the most tedious part of narrowing down your candidate options. While eliminating in-person interviews isn’t suggested, you might benefit from your initial interview stage being conducted through an AI program.
By utilizing AI video interviewing tools, you free up your schedule to focus more on the candidates likely to be a good fit for your company. The initial interview is a great way to assess whether you want to see a candidate face-to-face and potentially offer them a job. It prevents you and the candidate from wasting their time unnecessarily.
It’s also a great way to weed out candidates that won’t fit your company culture. If they aren’t willing to do pre-screening through a video interview program, they aren’t likely to put the right level of effort into the job.
Automated Interview Scheduling
AI recruitment tools don’t always have to be extensive programs that encompass a massive part of your process. Sometimes, something as simple as automating how interviews get scheduled is enough.
It saves the time usually spent going back and forth via email with a candidate to find a date that works best for you both. By sending one email that contains a link to your calendar of potential dates and times, you are eliminating the time wasted waiting for a candidate to reply.
Calendar automation tools are so easy to integrate into your process, and they are simple to navigate on the candidate side of things. This makes getting an interview on the books as easy as 1,2,3.
Assessment Tools
Conducting preliminary assessments is another part of the recruitment process that could take up quite a bit of time. Some positions, such as skilled workers or higher qualified professionals, require a series of assessments to determine whether they are knowledgeable enough to hold the position they are applying for.
Before the days of AI, employers had to conduct these assessments themselves, taking precious time away from their actual job duties. Currently, a variety of AI recruitment tools are available that give employers options on how to assess each potential candidate before meeting with them in person for an interview.
These tools are crucial to speeding up your hiring process and putting the progression of a candidate back into their own hands, by allowing the candidate to determine when and how fast they get through the assessment process, you are ensuring that only those serious about the job are moving forward.
Offer Letter Generation
Finally, AI can also help you in the final stages of your process. Many companies already have templates for sending out offer letters to candidates. There are now AI tools that can take these templates and personalize them for you.
It’s a simple tool that can save you time and effort in the long run. Candidates won’t know the difference, but you’ll see a change in how quickly your process concludes with the integration of this vital tool.
J & J Can Help You Find The Best Options
At the end of the day, what you decide for your business has to be more helpful than not. J & J Staffing is here to help you determine the best way to use AI to speed up your hiring process. If you are still curious about what might work best for your recruiting process, give us a call.
Staffing Services In Greater Philadelphia
J & J Staffing Resources is a professional staffing agency that connects local businesses to job seekers throughout the Greater Philadelphia area, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
We bring over 45 years of expertise in office, industrial, technical, and professional staffing placements as well as payroll management, and offer a wide range of services for both employers and job seekers.
Need help? J & J Staffing has offices in Newark, Bridgeport, Woodbury, Cherry Hill, Ewing, Princeton, Langhorne, and Horsham. Visit your local J & J staffing center or get started below.
Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 303,000 in March,
and the unemployment rate changed little at 3.8 percent.
Both the unemployment rate, at 3.8 percent, and the number of unemployed people,
at 6.4 million, changed little in March.
Job gains occurred in health care, government, and construction.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more),
at 1.2 million, was little changed in March. The long-term unemployed
accounted for 19.5 percent of all unemployed people.
In March, the number of people not in the labor force who
currently want a job, at 5.4 million, was little changed.
Looking Forward:
The March jobs report confirms the labor market remains resilient,
despite high interest rates and slowing economic indicators. The U.S.
labor market added 303,000 jobs in March, representing an acceleration in the
pace of hiring. January’s nonfarm payroll gains were upwardly revised to 256,000,
while February’s nonfarm payroll gains were revised down to 270,000.
The number of job openings in February rose slightly to 8.76 million from 8.75 million the
prior month, according to the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary report
released this week. This keeps the jobs opening rate unchanged at 5.3%.
A string of positive gains has kept unemployment below 4% since January 2022, though there
have been some signs of cracks. For instance, the level of household employment had grown
only modestly over the past year, while temporary employment has declined sharply.
Markets have been keeping close watch over the employment data particularly as the Federal Reserve weighs its
next moves on monetary policy. Stocks have tumbled this week amid concerns that a strong labor market and
resilient economy could keep the central bank on hold for longer than expected.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics – The Employment Situation – March 2024
Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 275,000 in
February, and the unemployment rate increased to 3.9 percent.
The unemployment rate rose by 0.2 percentage point to 3.9 percent in February, and the
number of unemployed people increased by 334,000 to 6.5 million.
Job gains occurred in health care, in government, in food services and drinking places, in
social assistance, and in transportation and warehousing.
Employment showed little change over the month in other major
industries, including mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction;
manufacturing; wholesale trade; information; financial
activities; professional and business services; and
other services.
Looking Forward:
The US economy created more new jobs than expected in February,
while an increase in the unemployment rate for the first time in four
months and downward revisions to job growth in prior months suggested
signs of some softening in the US labor market.
A revised 229,000 jobs were added in January, according to the report, down from the
353,000 initially reported. In total, revisions showed there were 167,000 fewer jobs
added in December and January than previously expected. Meanwhile, wages increased
0.1% on a monthly basis in February, slower than the 0.2% economists expected.
Job creation skewed toward part-time positions. Full-time jobs decreased by 187,000 while
part-time employment rose by 51,000, according to the household survey. An alternative
jobless measure, sometimes called the “real” unemployment rate, that includes discouraged
workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons rose slightly to 7.3%.
Job creation has stayed strong despite a spate of high-profile layoffs, particularly in the tech industry.
Most recently, companies such as Cisco, Microsoft and SAP have announced substantial
reductions in their workforces.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics – The Employment Situation – February 2024
Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 353,000 in
January, and the unemployment rate remained at 3.7 percent.
Job gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, retail trade, and social
assistance. Employment declined in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction
industry.
In January, the unemployment rate was 3.7 percent for the third month in a row, and the number of unemployed people was little changed at 6.1 million.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or
more), at 1.3 million, was little changed in January. The long-term
unemployed accounted for 20.8 percent of all
unemployed people.
Looking Forward:
The nation’s employers delivered a stunning burst of hiring to begin
2024, adding 353,000 jobs in January in the latest sign of the economy’s
continuing ability to shrug off the highest interest rates in two decades.
Friday’s government report showed that last month’s job gain — roughly twice what
economists had predicted — topped the December gain of 333,000, a figure that was
itself revised sharply higher. The unemployment rate stayed at 3.7%, just above a
half-century low.
Wages rose unexpectedly fast in January, too. Average hourly pay climbed a sharp 0.6%
from December, the fastest monthly gain in nearly two years, and 4.5% from January 2023.
January’s blowout job gain is all but sure to cause the Fed to take a cautious approach
toward cutting its key interest rate, which affects many consumer and business loans. A
March rate cut now seems definitely off the table.
In another show of strength for the economy, the report contained sizable upward revisions to job growth during the
previous two months. Gains for November and December were revised up by a total of 126,000 jobs to a respective
182,000 and 333,000, the government said, suggesting that the labor market is stronger than it previously appeared.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics – The Employment Situation – January 2024
