Ben Casselman Profile picture
Nov 1 6 tweets 3 min read
Job openings rose in September, to 10.7 million. Still only partly offsets the big drop in August.
Quits rate held steady at 2.7%.
Layoffs remain very low (and dipped back down slightly).
#JOLTS
bls.gov/news.release/j…
Job openings edged back up in September, which isn't a big surprise given the huge drop in August. (Aug. also revised up, but only slightly.)
Basic story seems unchanged: Openings are falling, but from a *very* high level. Area chart showing level of job openings in millions.
The uptick in job openings pushed back up the ratio of openings per unemployed worker, though it remains a bit below the 2:1 ratio we saw at the peak. Still lots of jobs out there! Line chart showing the ratio of job openings to unemployed w
Voluntary quits continue to edge down, though they remain high. Quits are key both as a sign of worker confidence and as a source of wage growth. (Remember: Most people quit to take another job.) Area chart showing voluntary quits by month, in millions.
It's notable that while quits are elevated, they are not NEARLY as elevated as openings, relative to their historical levels. Quits say the labor market is exceptionally strong. Openings say it is blazingly hot. Which one is right has big implications for appropriate Fed policy. Line chart showing quits rate in blue and the openings rate
Layoffs remain extraordinarily low -- well below any prepandemic level. (Note I'm showing this chart two ways -- one with the raw data and the other without the extreme pandemic levels, which obscure what's been happening recently.) Area chart showing layoffs per month, in millions.Same chart, but this time without the data from March and Ap

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More from @bencasselman

Oct 7
The U.S. economy added 263k jobs in September and the unemployment rate fell back to 3.5 percent.
Data: bls.gov/news.release/e…
Full coverage: nytimes.com/live/2022/10/0…
August unrevised at +315k jobs. July's very strong gains revised up another 11k to +537k.
Labor force shrank slightly (-57k), participation rate ticks down a tenth, following August's big jump. These month-to-month changes are noisy, so this seems consistent with a gradual rebound in the labor force.
Read 24 tweets
Oct 4
Job openings fell by more than 1 million in August, down to 10 million. Quits edged up (but July was revised down).
#JOLTS
bls.gov/news.release/j…
This was the largest one-month drop in openings on record other than in April 2020. Openings still high by historical standards, but this sure looks like the drop in labor demand we've been watching for. #JOLTS Chart showing monthly job openings.
There were 1.7 jobs per unemployed worker in August, down from a 2-to-1 ratio in July. Consistent with other evidence that the labor market has been cooling. cc @melbournecoal nytimes.com/2022/09/30/bus… Chart showing the number of job openings per unemployed work
Read 10 tweets
Oct 3
Following last week's GDP benchmark revisions, there's been a bunch of discussion about how Americans are spending down their "excess savings" faster than previously believed. I think that narrative is missing some important context.
A (quite belated) 🧵:
First, very quick recap: During the early months of the pandemic, Americans cut back their spending (since they couldn't go anywhere). We also gave out a lot of money in pandemic aid, much of which wasn't immediately spent. The result was a big increase in the saving rate.
This was a LOT of money in the aggregate. Depending on the assumptions you use, these "excess savings" (savings beyond what we'd expect without Covid) topped $2.5 trillion by the end of last year.
Here's what that chart looked like before the latest revisions: Chart showing cumulative excess savings in the pandemic, bef
Read 18 tweets
Oct 3
Quits are falling. Wage growth is slowing. Companies are finding it easier to fill positions.
The job market has proved more resilient than almost anyone expected. But there are signs that it may be coming off the boil.
With @melbournecoal
nytimes.com/2022/10/03/bus…
@melbournecoal From the Fed's perspective, this is pretty close to an ideal scenario (albeit not nearly enough yet). Less job-hopping by employees and less poaching by employers (combined with increased labor force participation) means softer wage growth without lots of layoffs/unemployment.
But for workers, especially low-wage workers, this still suggests that the moment of power they have enjoyed for the past year may be passing, and that employers may be regaining leverage.
Read 4 tweets
Aug 30
There were 11.2 million job openings at the end of July, UP slightly from June (though down from the spring). Quits down a hair. Layoffs basically flat (at a very low level).
#JOLTS
bls.gov/news.release/j…
Job openings are down from their peak, but they are still extraordinarily high by historical standards. The Fed is hoping it can cool the job market by bringing down openings without leading to more layoffs. Not a lot of evidence of that happening so far. Image
On the other hand, layoffs also remain extremely low, despite some high-profile job cuts in tech. Image
Read 10 tweets
Aug 26
Powell is speaking now in Jackson Hole.
Here's our story from @jeannasmialek: nytimes.com/2022/08/26/bus…
Here's the text of his speech: federalreserve.gov/newsevents/spe…
Or watch it live here:
@jeannasmialek Powell: "While the lower inflation readings for July are welcome, a single month's improvement falls far short of what the Committee will need to see before we are confident that inflation is moving down."
Powell is very direct: "While higher interest rates ... will bring down inflation, they will also bring some pain to households and businesses. These are the unfortunate costs of reducing inflation. But a failure to restore price stability would mean far greater pain.
Read 4 tweets

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