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| Economy |
| How the Job Market Is Faring as Fed Shifts Focus to Employment |
| 2024-08-31 |
| [Epoch Times] The number of job openings has declined by about 1.1 million since September 2023, with vacancies totaling a little more than 8 million, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Research has highlighted that employers are putting their staffing plans on ice. RedBalloon’s recent Freedom Economy Index, for example, found that more than two-thirds (70 percent) of small businesses are neither hiring nor reducing staff. Hiring is now at its lowest year-to-date level since 2012, according to the latest data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., which researches and analyzes job market trends. Since January 2021, the CPI has rocketed by more than 20 percent. By comparison, real (inflation-adjusted) hourly compensation has tumbled by more than 4 percent in the same span. Price pressures have leveled off since September 2023. However, there is still a divergence between what workers earn and the cost of living. Real hourly compensation is still down by 0.3 percent, while the CPI has risen by 2 percent. The Federal Reserve maintains a dual mandate of price stability and maximum employment. After the hope that inflation would be transitory was Powell said in his speech that now that "inflation has declined significantly" and "the labor market is no longer overheated," the central bank will shift its attention to the other part of its two-sided mandate: maximum employment. Despite raising interest rates to their highest levels in 23 years, the institution did not collapse the labor market. After two-plus years of a restrictive policy stance, monetary policymakers are gearing up for rate cuts as unemployment has reached its highest level since October 2021. Will the Fed’s rate cuts be enough to prevent further joblessness? For Powell and his colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee, the labor market has cooled enough. |
| Posted by:Bobby |