Alicia Levine, head of equities at BNY Mellon Wealth Management, and Mike Green, chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management, discuss whether the Fed's inflation strategy is effective at “making money.” do.
U.S. job openings fell to their lowest level in more than two years in November, the latest evidence that the Federal Reserve's interest rate hike campaign continues to cool the labor market.
The Labor Department said Wednesday that there were 8.79 million job openings in November, down from 8.85 million in last month's report, which was revised upward. Economists polled by Refinitiv had predicted 8.85 million people.
The number of job openings was the lowest since March 2021.
Workers are now asking for nearly $80,000 to start new jobs
Elementary school students gather to speak with prospective employees during a Prince George's County School District recruiting event at Henry A. Wise Jr. High School in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, Aug. 2, 2023. Educators. (Amanda Andrade-Rose/The Washington Post via Getty Images/Getty Images)
of federal reserve The government is closely monitoring these numbers to gauge the tightness of the labor market and try to contain inflation.
Central banks responded to the inflation crisis and extremely tight labor market of the past two years by raising interest rates at the fastest pace in decades. Officials approved 11 rate hikes in just 16 months, pushing the federal benchmark funds rate to its highest level since 2001. Policymakers have since indicated that the tightening campaign is likely to end amid growing signs that inflation is slowing.
Has the Federal Reserve finished raising interest rates?
The latest labor data confirms the view that both the job market and inflation are slowing.
“The job market is cooling, as evidenced by the decline in job openings,” said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial. “The Fed is probably in a good position as it prepares the market for future rate cuts.”
Job seekers visit a booth during the Spring Job Fair held at the Las Vegas Convention Center on April 15, 2022. (KM Cannon/Las Vegas Review Journal/Getty Images)
Still, job openings remain at historically high levels.in front of COVID-19 pandemic It started in early 2020 and the all-time high was 7.6 million people. There are approximately 1.5 jobs for every unemployed American.
Meanwhile, the number of Americans who have quit their jobs has fallen to 3.5 million (about 2.2% of the workforce), and workers' confidence that they can quit and find work elsewhere is waning. It is shown that.
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Over the past year, job hopping has been a windfall for many workers. According to a recent study, the real hourly wage of job-changers increased by 6.2% in November, while the wage increase for workers who kept the same job was 5.3%. Atlanta Fed Data.
The report also showed that the number of layoffs remained largely unchanged last month, hovering around 1.5 million.
