Hey wait the f-ck a minute? I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this. I suppose the border thing can't be solved? Oh well!
Job Openings Report to Indicate Tightness of Labor Market
Federal Reserve closely watches postings, which have exceeded the number of unemployed people looking for work since May 2021
The U.S. job market remains on solid ground, though it has cooled in recent months with jobs shed by companies in sectors including tech, entertainment and real estate.
By Bryan Mena, WSJ
Nov. 30, 2022 5:30 am ET
The Labor Department’s October report on job openings and turnover will gauge demand for workers in the still-tight U.S. labor market.
The job market remains on a strong footing but has gradually cooled in recent months, with companies in sectors such as tech, entertainment and real estate shedding jobs. Employers added 261,000 jobs in October, a robust number but the smallest gain this year. Jobless claims have remained relatively low, but have been edging higher since record lows reached in the spring.
The overall economy has lost steam but has showed resilience amid persistently high inflation and elevated interest rates. The Federal Reserve increased interest rates by 0.75-percentage-point earlier this month, the fourth consecutive bump of that size, as it worked to tame inflation that remained high in October.
“There’s still little sign of serious weakness in the labor market right now,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist of jobs site ZipRecruiter. “The pain of tech layoffs and the real estate slowdown are still quite contained in those few industries directly affected by rising interest rates.”
The Labor Department figures, to be released at 10 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday, include job openings, hiring, layoffs and voluntary quits by workers in October.
ZipRecruiter estimated that openings picked up through late November from the previous month, totaling around 10.7 million, essentially flat from September’s level.
Ms. Pollak said strong consumer spending and the continued recovery of industries such as leisure and hospitality are fueling the labor market’s continued strength. Leisure and hospitality has remained one of the industries with the highest rates of openings and quits in recent months.
Retail spending rose sharply in October, a sign consumers remain resilient despite inflation. Overall spending continued at a solid clip in September as Americans spent more on housing, utilities and transportation. Some of the spending strength is coming from savings built up during the pandemic, which have been gradually dwindling.
In the first quarter of 2022, U.S. worker productivity fell in the steepest drop in 74 years. WSJ’s Jon Hilsenrath explains why productivity is central to the economy, and why big drops can be difficult to recover from. Illustration: Reshad Malekzai
The Commerce Department releases October figures on overall consumer spending on Thursday.
Walter Magnuson, general manager of Winchester Mystery House, a tourist attraction in San Jose, Calif., said his company of about 150 employees has had trouble hiring enough tour guides, event-support employees and janitorial workers in recent months.
The challenge in filling vacancies has meant heavier workloads for existing staff, limiting the number of tours in a day, and it has prevented the business from hosting large private events.
“We are just able to staff our base business, which are the tours and seasoned-themed events, but to layer a wedding or something on top of that would be very challenging. We’re sort of tapped out of that space,” Mr. Magnuson said.
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He added that the business was thinking about raising wages in the new year and has made an effort to retain current workers by improving the employee lounge and occasionally providing free meals to the staff.
Some companies have announced layoffs or plans to freeze staffing levels amid economic uncertainty, with many in the tech sector such as Meta Platforms Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. Entertainment company AMC Networks Inc. on Tuesday said in a memo to employees that it plans to lay off about 20% of its workforce.
Economists say layoffs aren’t yet widespread. “It’s easy to get lost in the headlines, like that Company X is laying off their 1,000 workers or whatever, but to some extent, that is the natural order of the labor market,” said Michael Pugliese, an economist at Wells Fargo.
Mr. Pugliese said he expects demand for workers to ease gradually in the coming months along with how often workers quit, which in part reflects workers’ confidence in their ability to find a new job.
Total monthly quits have remained elevated above four million since June 2021.
“The job quitting rate is still 16% above the prepandemic norm as employed workers continue to find new work at elevated rates,” jobs site Indeed said in an analysis. Quit rates in tourism and retail trade, two industries that drove last year’s highest levels, have come down in recent months, Indeed added.
Wilson Beckman, 26 years old, of Chicago, quit his job at an advertising agency in July because of burnout and his decision to pursue a new career. Mr. Beckman said his workload increased before he quit—partly because of high turnover—and that he mistakenly took on too many projects.
“During Covid, I became a bit of a workaholic because I saw it as something super productive to do during the lockdowns, but I never broke that habit,” Mr. Beckman said.
He said he felt “symptoms of depression, a lot of anxiety, and a lot of stress” in the weeks leading up to his resignation, which prompted him to seek out mental health services. He recently completed online courses to pursue a new career in data science and is now searching for job opportunities.
Write to Bryan Mena at bryan.mena@wsj.com
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