The US just can’t quit hiring. Just when it seemed the economy might be cooling off, Bureau of Labor Statistics labor market data showed a surprising increase to 9.6 million job openings in August.
The number of job postings were up about 690,000 compared to the previous month, and the vast majority were white-collar jobs in business and professional services, as well as finance and insurance. The surge ended a three-month run of decreases, Reuters reported.
“The reversal reinforces the case for a November Fed hike,” Jonathan Millar, a senior economist at Barclays New York, told Reuters.
But those fears may be unfounded, Nick Bunker of the Indeed Hiring Lab wrote. Bunker pointed out that the changes in other labor market measures, such as Indeed’s own jobs index, were “more muted.”
Notably, there’s no sign of another Great Resignation, which would signal that the labor market is indeed heating up again. And “seasonal job postings are lagging the trend of the past few years,” suggesting that demand has softened, he argued.
Indeed, Reuters reported that “the labor market continues to steadily move toward an environment where demand is in balance with supply.”
Bunker added: “We’d need to see several months of data like today’s, and signs from other data, before feeling like the trend has changed.” And some of that data will arrive on Friday with the latest jobs report.
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