September 2022 Job Report Snapshot

Quick Facts:

  • Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 263,000 in September.
  • The unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent.
  • Notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality and in health care.
  • The labor force participation rate was little changed at 62.3 percent in September, and the employment-population ratio was unchanged at 60.1 percent.
  • The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 1.1 million in September. The long-term unemployed accounted for 18.5 percent of all unemployed persons.
Job stat circles September 2022

Looking Forward:

  • The number of job openings fell 10% in September to a seasonally adjusted 10.1 million from 11.2 million the month before, the Labor Department reported. The 1.1 million drop in openings is the largest decline since the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. That left job openings at their lowest level in a year.
  • Many firms slowing hiring or laying off workers are in industries that are highly sensitive to interest-rate increases, such as technology and real estate. Some companies that saw a rise in demand earlier in the pandemic are also cutting back as consumer preferences shifted from goods to services.
  • Fed Governor Christopher Waller: “Expectations are for job gains of around 260,000, which would be lower than recent months but very healthy relative to past experience. A jobs number in this range along with the job openings rate reported on Tuesday would show that the labor market is slowing a bit but is still quite tight. As a result, I don’t expect tomorrow’s jobs report to alter my view that we should be focused 100 percent on reducing inflation.”
  • Jobless claims also increased more than expected last week, with the number of Americans filing first- time unemployment benefits rising to 219,000, a five-week high.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Unemployment trends July 2022

August 2022 Job Report Snapshot

Quick Facts:

  • Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 315,000 in August.
  • The unemployment rate increased to 3.7 percent.
  • Notable job gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, and retail trade.
  • The number of unemployed persons increased 344,000 to 6 million.
  • The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 1.1 million in August. The long-term unemployed accounted for 18.8 percent of all unemployed persons.
Job stat circles July 2022

Looking Forward:

  • Nonfarm payrolls rose solidly in August amid an otherwise slowing economy, while the unemployment rate ticked higher as more workers rejoined the labor force, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
  • Professional and business services led payroll gains with 68,000, followed by health care with 48,000 and retail with 44,000. Leisure and hospitality, which had been a leading sector in the pandemic-era jobs recovery, rose by just 31,000 for the month after averaging 90,000 in the previous seven months of 2022. The unemployment rate for the sector jumped to 6.1%, its highest since February.
  • The jobs numbers pose a quandary for a Federal Reserve trying to get inflation under control. Inflation is running near its fastest pace in more than 40 years as a combination of a supply-demand imbalance, massive stimulus from the Fed and Congress and the war in Ukraine has sent the cost of living soaring.
  • Some signs point to an economy that is rapidly cooling under the weight of high inflation. The Fed is raising interest rates to slow the economy and curb price increases. Some major employers, including Ford Motor Co., Snap Inc., T-Mobile US Inc. and Wayfair Inc., have announced job cuts in the past few weeks.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Unemployment trends July 2022

How to Take Your Hiring Process From Average Speed to Light Speed

In today’s hiring landscape, it isn’t enough to just stand out with your company culture and benefits. You also have to ensure that the hiring process for your positions is quick. Otherwise, you will be left with an open position that negatively affects your productivity.

This is why a quick hiring process is a way to beat your competition. People want to work but don’t want to spend too much time getting the desired job opportunity. If the process takes too long with one job, candidates will move on to other opportunities. You need to fill a position and they need a job so make the process quick to ensure you get them in the door.

A Shorter Process Means More Candidates

The shorter the process the more qualified and motivated candidates you are going to find. The candidate drives today’s job market – this means that their needs and desires strongly influence what jobs they pursue. If you have a short but meaningful hiring process, your candidates will take notice and put you toward the top of their desired job list. 

The less time it takes to walk a candidate through your process, the more excited they will be about the job. In short, no one wants to do work for free – which is exactly what you are asking of your candidates the more complex your process is. Also, most job seekers are looking for a solution that will change their status quo as soon as possible, not something that will make a change a few weeks down the road.

You can’t think that a candidate will wait around forever. They are looking at multiple offers at the same time. The fastest one to respond to them with the best offer is going to be the one they choose – make sure you are that choice. This doesn’t mean you need to completely change your whole process, just pick up the pace a bit. 

Ways You Can Speed Up Your Current Process

Recruitment File Tabs

Getting candidates through the hiring process faster doesn’t require you to change much about your current process. The little things can work wonders to speed up your current wait time and get you the candidates you need before they choose someone else. 

Be quick to respond – First and foremost, when a candidate reaches out to you regarding their application or with any questions they have, be swift in your reply. Don’t let an email or phone call go unanswered for more than 24 hours. Your time is valuable, and so is theirs.

Attitude matters – skills can be taught – Going into this process with the right attitude can minimize any extra time that may be added on because a candidate gets the wrong impression from you. Likewise, knowing what kind of attitude you need from someone you wish to employ goes a long way toward the decision-making process. Don’t be afraid to turn down a skilled candidate with a bad attitude. Skills can be honed and developed, but an attitude cannot.

Hold effective interviews – Ultimately, you can make or break your chances with a candidate if your interview process isn’t streamlined and efficient. Come into the meeting prepared to speak about the job, its benefits, and what you need from a candidate. Also, leave time for the candidate to ask any questions they may have for you.

Create engaging job ads that list all requirements – An important step that you can take towards speeding up your process and ensuring you won’t be wasting anyone’s time is through your initial job ad. If you make the job sound engaging and worth checking out, more candidates will engage. Knowing the complete job requirements upfront will shorten the process time because it will limit engagements to people who know they are qualified.

Staffing Agencies Can Help

When you are understaffed, it’s hard to get through a typical work day and the number of applications coming in to fill your vacant positions. This added pressure ends up either making your work suffer or the applications sit on hold for a longer period than necessary. It doesn’t have to be this difficult, though, and there are solutions to help you get through the process of hiring new employees at a quicker speed.

The best solution is to hire someone whose job it is to look through applications. This can be accomplished through an in-house position. Or by hiring a third-party staffing agency to divert all your applications.

A staffing agency, such as J&J Staffing, is a great resource to turn to especially if you aren’t sure what you should do to speed up your hiring process. They are well equipped with knowledge of the latest hiring trends and can help you sort out the best solution. 

No matter what, a staffing agency will do exactly what you need. It is their job to assist you and make your staffing needs less stressful. Trusting a staffing agency ensures that you are working to keep the best candidates interested in you by creating the smoothest process that takes the least amount of time.

Hiring Should Be Easy! So Don’t Sweat It!

People shaking hands over a resume

Finding the right employee shouldn’t feel like an insurmountable task. If you don’t have the time and energy to devote to in-house hiring, ask a staffing agency to help you out. The process should be fun and exciting, not tedious and stressful.

You don’t want to spend a long time on the hiring process and neither do your candidates. Do everyone a favor and streamline everything so that, in the end, everyone is happy with the time spent. 

Even if you can handle in-house staffing needs, consulting a staffing company could help you decide what ways you can ensure your hiring process is the best out there. Remember, you want to beat your competition to the finish line with a candidate.

Let J&J Staffing help you out with all your hiring needs. Contact us today.

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.

July 2022 Job Report Snapshot

Quick Facts:

  • Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 528,000 in June.
  • The unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent.
  • Job growth was widespread, led by gains in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and health care.
  • The number of unemployed persons edged down to 5.7 million.
  • Both total nonfarm employment and the unemployment rate have returned to their February 2020 pre-pandemic levels, prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
  • The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) decreased by 269,000 in July to 1.1 million.
Job Report Circle July 2022

Looking Forward:

  • U.S. employers added 528,000 jobs in July as the labor market now has recovered all 22 million jobs lost in the pandemic and continued to defy soaring inflation, rising interest rates and a slowing economy.
  • Last week, however, initial jobless claims, a gauge of layoffs, rose to the highest level since November based on a four-week moving average. Tech giants such as Oracle, Amazon, Netflix and Robinhood have all announced significant job cuts recently.
  • Regardless of whether a recession is eventually declared, the latest economic figures show that output is weakening much faster than the job market. The disconnect between the growing job market and otherwise faltering economy boils down to one key point: Despite slowing consumer demand, the supply of workers to make goods and provide services has been considerably below companies’ needs.
  • Americans still aren’t staying in their jobs, even as fears of a recession settle over the economy. In June, 4.2 million people quit their jobs, according to new data out from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the same time, hiring wasn’t slowing down: 6.4 million Americans were hired in June, and the layoff rate stayed low at 0.9%. That means that, even as some do see layoffs and hiring slowdowns, workers for the most part aren’t worried about walking away from their jobs.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Unemployment trends June 2022

June 2022 Job Report Snapshot

Quick Facts:

  • Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 372,000 in June.
  • Unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.6 percent.
  • Notable job gains occurred in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and health care.
  • The number of unemployed remained essentially unchanged at 5.9 million.
  • The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was essentially unchanged at 1.3 million.
  • The number of job leavers – that is, unemployed persons who quit or voluntarily left their previous job and began looking for new employment – increased by 68,000 to 832,000 in May.
June Job Report Stats

Looking Forward:

  • The unemployment rate in June remained at 3.6% for a fourth straight month, the Labor Department said Friday, matching a near 50-year low that was reached before the pandemic struck in 2020.
  • Many employers are still struggling to fill jobs, especially in the economy’s service sector, with Americans now traveling, eating out and attending public events with much greater
  • frequency. The Fed may see the June job gains as evidence that the rapid pace of hiring is feeding inflation as companies raise pay and then raise prices to cover higher labor costs.
  • Fed Chair Jerome Powell has held out hope that the economy will continue to expand even as the central bank raises borrowing costs at its fastest pace since the late 1980s. But Powell has also acknowledged that overseas factors, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has elevated gas and food prices, will make it difficult to avoid a recession.
  • Inflation hit a 40-year high of 8.6% in May amid lingering supply-chain troubles and Russia’s war in Ukraine. Sharply climbing prices are squeezing companies’ profit margins, leading many to scale back hiring plans, says economist Lydia Boussour of Oxford Economics. Consumers are also cutting back as costs swell. Manufacturing and service sector activity is expanding more slowly. And initial jobless claims, a gauge of layoffs, have trended higher in recent months, though they’re still historically low.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

May Unemployment Trends

May 2022 Job Report Snapshot

Quick Facts:

  • Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 390,000 in May.
  • Unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.6 percent.
  • Notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, in professional and business services, and in transportation and warehousing. Employment in retail trade declined.
  • The number of unemployed remained essentially unchanged at 6 million.
  • The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) little changed at 1.4 million.
  • The number of job leavers – that is, unemployed persons who quit or voluntarily left their previous job and began looking for new employment – declined by 29,000 to 763,000 in May.
Job trend circles April 22

Looking Forward:

  • The U.S. economy continued to see healthy job growth in May, indicating the labor market is still strong despite growing fears of a recession amid sky-high inflation and an increasingly aggressive Federal Reserve.
  • Job gains were broad-based, with the biggest increases in the pandemic-battered leisure and hospitality industry (84,000), professional and business services (75,000) and transportation and warehousing (47,000). Nearly every industry gained positions last month, with one notable exception: Retail, which shed nearly 61,000 jobs.
  • Businesses are eager to onboard new employees and are raising wages in order to attract workers as they confront a labor shortage. There were roughly 11.4 million open jobs at the end of April – near a record high – while the number of Americans quitting their job is also well-above pre-pandemic levels.
  • Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has acknowledged there could be some “pain associated” with reducing inflation and curbing demand but has pushed back against the notion of an impending recession, identifying the labor market and strong consumer spending as bright spots in the economy. Still, he has warned that a soft landing is not assured.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Unemployment trends April 2022

April 2022 Job Report Snapshot

Quick Facts:

  • Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 428,000 in April.
  • Unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.6 percent.
  • Job growth was widespread, led by gains in leisure and hospitality, in manufacturing, and in transportation and warehousing.
  • The number of unemployed remained essentially unchanged at 5.9 million.
  • The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) little changed at 1.5 million.
  • The number of job leavers – that is, unemployed persons who quit or voluntarily left their previous job and began looking for new employment – rose by 6,000 to 793,000 in April.
Job trends March 22

Looking Forward:

  • The 428,000 net new jobs last month in the Labor Department’s Friday report is mildly encouraging since every major industry added workers. But the report also contains a warning that inflationary pressure may be starting to hurt the labor market.
  • While the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.6%, the labor participation rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 62.2%. Labor participation and the workforce have been trending up since January 2021 as lockdowns eased and vaccines rolled out. April represented the biggest labor participation decline since September 2020.
  • Worker paychecks can’t buy as much as they did even a few months ago, and those without the luxury to work from home have been slammed by surging gasoline prices. Expectations for continued economic growth rest with solid consumer spending, but the jobs report raises the question of how long this will continue if real wages keep falling.
  • The report likely will do little to sway the Federal Reserve from its current path of interest rate increases. The central bank announced Wednesday it would raise its benchmark interest rate half a percentage point in what will be an ongoing effort to stamp out price increases running at their fastest pace in more than 40 years.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Unemployment trends March 2022

March 2022 Job Report Snapshot

Quick Facts:

  • Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 431,000 in March.
  • Unemployment rate edged down by 0.2 percent to 3.6 percent.
  • Notable job gains continued in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, retail trade, and manufacturing.
  • The number of unemployed persons edged down to 6 million.
  • The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) decreased by 274,000 to 1.4 million.
  • The number of job leavers – that is, unemployed persons who quit or voluntarily left their previous job and began looking for new employment – fell by 176,000 to 787,000 in March.
Job stats March 2022

Looking Forward:

  • U.S. job growth continued at a robust pace in March while the unemployment rate fell, as the Covid-19 pandemic’s grip on the labor market recedes and more workers return to the labor force.
  • Inflation has eroded consumers’ spending power: Hourly pay, adjusted for higher consumer prices, fell 2.6% in February from a year earlier — the 11th straight month in which inflation has outpaced year-over-year wage growth. According to AAA, average gasoline prices, at $4.23 a gallon, are up a dizzying 47% from a year ago.
  • Businesses are eager to onboard new employees and are raising wages in order to attract workers as they confront a labor shortage. There are roughly 11.3 million open jobs – the third-highest on record – while the pace of layoffs has moderated in recent months.
  • Millions of workers are seeing the largest pay gains in years, as companies compete with one another for a limited number of employees: Wages climbed 5.6% in March from the previous year, nearly double the pre-pandemic average of 3%. Many of those gains have been eroded, however, by the highest inflation in nearly four decades that has pushed the price of everyday necessities like gasoline, clothing, and food significantly higher.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Unemployment trends February 2022

February 2022 Job Report Snapshot

Quick Facts:

  • Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 678,000 in February.
  • Unemployment rate edged down by 0.2 percent to 3.8 percent.
  • Job growth was widespread over the month, led by gains in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, health care, and construction.
  • The number of unemployed persons edged down to 6.3 million.
  • The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was essentially unchanged at 1.7 million.
  • Among the unemployed, the number of job leavers increased to 963,000 in February.
Job trends January 2022

Looking Forward:

  • Job growth accelerated last month, as falling coronavirus cases brought customers back to businesses and workers back to the office.
  • The U.S. economy still has roughly two million fewer jobs than before the mass layoffs that began two years ago this month, and some workers remain sidelined by health concerns, child care problems or other factors. Many companies still report having trouble finding enough staff to meet demand.
  • The labor market recovery has overcome every obstacle. Job openings are near a record high. Layoffs are at a new low. And hiring has remained strong in the ebb and flow of successive waves of the pandemic — employers have added at least 400,000 jobs every month since May, the longest such streak on record.
  • Labor’s survey was conducted before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drove up energy prices and rocked markets, developments that economists say could crimp business confidence and hiring in coming months. Gas prices have soared above $5 a gallon in southern California, a state with the highest gas prices in the country, and the rest of the country may soon follow, according to a fuel analyst.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Unemployment trends December 2021