America\u2019s job market is in a \u201chire less, fire less\u201d mode \u2014 and even that \u201cfire less\u201d might not last.<\/p>\n
According to the US Labor Department, continuing jobless claims \u2014 the number of people still collecting unemployment benefits after their first claim \u2014 rose to 1.97 million<\/b> for the week ending June 14, their highest level in more than 3.5 years<\/b>. Meanwhile, initial jobless claims (a proxy for new layoffs) remained stable.<\/p>\n
Taken together, these trends point to a cooling job market: workers aren\u2019t<\/b> being laid off en masse, but when they are, it\u2019s taking longer to land new roles.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sherwood News<\/p>\n
Indeed, job seekers are already feeling the squeeze. Per the latest Conference Board survey, the share of consumers viewing jobs as \u201cplentiful\u201d just fell<\/a> to a four-year low<\/b>, and it\u2019s not just a hunch, either. A June report<\/a> from Indeed Hiring Lab shows that monthly job gains in the US have consistently lagged behind the 2019 average for the past three months. Now, only 52%<\/b> of sectors are hiring above prepandemic levels, down from ~75%<\/b> in early 2024.<\/p>\n At the same time, employers are holding on to<\/a> existing staff, reflecting a kind of labor market freeze rooted in caution rather than confidence. In fact, consumer spending dipped<\/a> for a second month in May, with retail sales posting<\/a> their sharpest monthly drop in two years. That\u2019s not a great sign for future hiring.<\/p>\n Still, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week<\/a> that the labor market remains \u201csolid\u201d with conditions \u201cat or near maximum employment.\u201d But as businesses face growing cost pressures from ever-looming tariffs, they may soon be forced to cut headcount, Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin warned<\/a>, declaring that \u201cthe current low hiring, low firing environment might come under threat.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"America\u2019s job market is in a \u201chire less, fire less\u201d mode \u2014 and even that \u201cfire less\u201d might…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3092],"tags":[51,897,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-226887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-jobs","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114772924489155595","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}