{"id":245059,"date":"2025-12-21T23:47:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T23:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/245059\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T23:47:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T23:47:19","slug":"us-labour-market-after-affordability-concerns-america-faces-its-next-hurdle-a-stagnating-job-landscape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/245059\/","title":{"rendered":"US labour market: After affordability concerns, America faces its next hurdle \u2014 a \u2018stagnating\u2019 job landscape"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"US The US labour market continues to lose steam, with the latest jobs report showing a sharp slowdown in hiring. While November\u2019s data was affected by shutdown-related distortions, economists say the broader trend is clear: job creation has settled into a prolonged low gear.Though employers are still adding workers, the pace of hiring is among the weakest recorded in the past two decades. The unemployment rate ticked higher, driven in part by more Americans entering the workforce without finding jobs. At the same time, long-term unemployment increased, the number of discouraged workers grew, and economic gaps widened further, CNN reported. \u201cHiring, while certainly not on a freeze, is on hold; and people that have jobs are absolutely holding on to them with white knuckles,\u201d said Dan North, Allianz Trade\u2019s senior economist for North America. \u201cI see that as definitely a labor market that\u2019s stagnating,\u201d North further told CNN. Despite the slowdown in hiring, the broader US economy has not slipped into contraction. Economic growth remains steady and productivity levels have held up. Average monthly job gains stand at roughly 55,000, a figure that reflects heightened uncertainty around trade policy, immigration rules and the broader political environment. Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US, told CNN that structural changes in the workforce are also reshaping employment dynamics. As Baby Boomers retire and immigration faces additional restrictions, the overall supply of labour is shrinking. As a result, the economy no longer needs to generate as many jobs each month to remain stable. \u201cMy estimate is that we need to hire 50,000 a month to keep the labor market conditions stable,\u201d Brusuelas told CNN. Under such conditions, economic growth could remain close to 2%, financial conditions would stay supportive, and inflation pressures may ease somewhat. From a purely economic standpoint, Brusuelas said, this scenario is sustainable and could persist for years. However, he warned that the benefits of stability would not be evenly shared. In a K-shaped economy, higher-income households are likely to continue benefiting from growth, while lower-income groups face increasing strain as hiring slows. Looking ahead, economists see multiple forces that could push the labour market in different directions. One major unknown is artificial intelligence and how quickly it might alter employment patterns. In the short term, uncertainty around AI adoption is making companies cautious about expanding their workforce, according to economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics, cited by CNN. \u201cThe longer-term implications for labor displacement and wage dynamics, however, remain an open question,\u201d Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, wrote in a note this week. AI, combined with tougher immigration enforcement and unresolved policy questions, is acting as a drag on labour market growth, said Tyler Schipper, associate professor of economics at St. Thomas University in Minnesota. \u201cThe question I ask myself is, \u2018 What would be the conditions in which I think the labor market would ramp back up?\u2019 and some of those are policy-related,\u201d he said. \u201cI have a hard time seeing those resolving themselves anytime soon.\u201d \u201cFor better or worse, I think we could be in this K-shaped economy for some time,\u201d Schipper added. \u201cAnd I think the way out of it probably is that there\u2019s a recession before things get better, which is never what you want to hear if you\u2019re on the lower leg of the K.\u201d Others believe the slowdown may not be permanent. Cory Stahle, an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab, said hiring could eventually accelerate, though the process is likely to be slow. \u201cThe US labor market is like a pretty big ship turned by a rudder,\u201d he told CNN. \u201cSometimes it takes a little time to turn around.\u201d Recent interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve could help stimulate hiring, though their impact typically takes three to five quarters to filter through the economy. Reduced uncertainty, whether through policy clarity or economic stability, could also encourage employers to loosen their grip on hiring plans. For now, uncertainty remains a dominant force. Businesses continue to grapple with unanswered questions around interest rates, prices, government policy and the tax law set to take effect in the upcoming year, Brusuelas noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US labour market continues to lose steam, with the latest jobs report showing a sharp slowdown in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[79,2784,179,18,19,17,7475,128442,4125,47990],"class_list":{"0":"post-245059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economic-growth","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-job-creation","15":"tag-labor-market-slowdown","16":"tag-unemployment-rate","17":"tag-us-labor-market"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115760231471176435","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}