New Report Confirms Labor Market Shedding Jobs
In a post from yesterday, I talked about how some economists are predicting a deteriorating U.S. economy will take a significant toll on employment (6% jobless rate; 2 million lost jobs). Today, Kelly Evans wrote a post in the Wall Street Journal’s Real Time Economics blog that discussed the findings of the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) from the U.S. Department of Labor, which showed that the rate of hiring by American businesses continues its downward trend (nearly two years now), and job openings have slowed over the last six months. Looking at job openings, manufacturing and construction showed considerable weakness, as did professional and business services, which had the largest monthly decline. However, openings in education and health services grew. Overall, the JOLTS data showed that there were a seasonally-adjusted 3.8 million total job openings in February, compared to 4.1 million a year ago at the same time. The “quits rate” also slowed from a seasonally-adjusted high of 61 in December 2006 to 56 in the latest report. Hirings continue to slow as well. In February there were a seasonally-adjusted 4.6 million hirings, compared to 4.8 million a year earlier. Evans wrote:
The JOLTS data confirm the signals from other employment reports that the labor market is slowly shedding jobs. On Friday, the government’s monthly payrolls report found the U.S. economy lost 80,000 jobs in March, following losses of 74,000 each in February and January. Meanwhile, claims for unemployment insurance benefits jumped in the week ending Mar. 29 to their highest level in more than two years.
Source:
“Job Openings, Hirings: The Slowdown Continues”
Kelly Evans
Wall Street Journal (Real Time Economics blog), April 8, 2008
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