Directory
- 2020
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- January
- Thoughts on GME and This Week in the Stock Market
- Record Home Price Levels Point to Strength in Post-Pandemic Economy
- The Stock Market Looks Overvalued, but It's Probably Not
- China GDP Growth Surpasses Expectations
- President-elect Joe Biden Introduces His "American Rescue Plan"
- Political Polarization Intensifies with Another Impeachment Along Party Lines
- Metal Demand Has a Bright Future in 2021 and Beyond
- What Happened to That US-China Trade Dispute?
- Civil Unrest, A Rising Threat to the 2021 Economy
- What's in the $900 Billion Relief Plan?
- February
- Long Term Employment Shifts Caused by the Pandemic
- Earnings Provide Positive Surprise Despite Pandemic
- Renewable Energy Under Fire in Texas
- Yellen Aims for Full Employment
- Minimum Wage Research in the Spotlight as a Hike Looks Inevitable
- Non-Residential Construction Soft in the Pandemic Economy
- March
- Views on Interest Rates and the Move in Treasury Yields
- Inflation Indicators Healthy but Still on the Rise
- Risky Assets Sell-off Despite Optimistic Economic Outlook
- The Latest on Vaccinations and What it Means for Growth
- April
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- Highlights of the Fed's "Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2020" Report
- Relative Factors and Forward Change in Federal Funds Rate
- Can Wage Growth Keep Up With Inflation?
- June
- July
- August
- With That, We Carry On
- Supply Pressures Looking to Peak
- Cars are Still Expensive, Workers are Still Needed
- Recovery Continues, but Delta Looms
- September
- Fed Eyes Tapering While China Sees a Setback
- Review the Fed Previews
- No Tapering Yet
- Labor Day on Labor Day
- October
- Delayed or Disappearing Growth?
- Supply and Demand Mismatch will be Evident during the Holiday Shopping Season
- Workers Find Leverage in a Tight Labor Market
- Cautiously Optimistic
- Sour Expectations Take Down the Market
- November
- Q3 Earnings Were Surprisingly Good
- Inflation Weights on Bonds and Consumer Sentiment
- FOMC Tapers While Trade and Employment Flash Mixed Signals
- December
- 2022
- January
- Inflation is Getting Broader, Not Cooler
- Unemployment Insurance During the Pandemic
- A Year of Normalization
- What Will GDP Growth Look Like in 2022?
- February
- March
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- August
- Student Loans Targeted by the Biden Administration
- The Chicago Fed Index Reverses in July
- Chinese Economic Data Faltered in July
- Stellar Jobs Report Bucks Recession Fears
- September
- Bank of Japan Punished for Dovish Policy Stance
- Expect 75 Today
- Manufacturing Weakness in Germany has Implications for Euro Area Growth
- October
- 2023
Job Openings Crushed But Labor Market Still Tight
Jacob Hess
October 04, 2022
- Employment
- Rates
Job openings crashed in August as noted in the most recent version of the colloquially named JOLTS report. Openings had been hovering around record highs since the end of last year following the meteoric post-pandemic rise, and it seemed that the labor market was able to avoid damage from the first round of rate cuts. In reality, labor demand had just been holding on through the summer, and August’s crash is a signal that it is starting to unwind.
The number of nonfarm job openings fell a record-setting -1.1 million to just above 10.0 million in August, the decline was topped only by the pandemic-fueled decline of -1.2 million set in April 2020. The largest loss in openings was seen in social assistance (-236,000), other services (-183,000), and retail (-143,000) but declines were also significant in manufacturing (-115,000), finance & real estate (-77,000), professional & business services (-119,000), and leisure & hospitality (-111,000). There were very few industries that saw increases, and in those industries, the increases were small.
Outside of openings, the JOLTS report was pretty much a non-event. Total hires increased by 39,000, and total separations increased by a slightly more significant 182,000. The growth in separations was caused by a 100,000 swell in quits which had been falling since the beginning of the summer. The quiet moves in hires and separations suggest that the reduction in job openings was a result of firms deferring plans to hire rather than terminating existing employment. In fact, based on the slight differential of about 150,000 separations over hires, one would expect job openings to increase if firms’ labor demand hadn’t shifted.

There may have been some indication of this coming in the regional PMIs future employment indexes. The New York Fed, Philadelphia Fed, and Dallas Fed have all reported declines in the Future Employment Diffusion Indexes over the course of 2022 through the end of summer. The same trend can be seen in the NFIB’s Small Business Hiring Plans index. While the declines have been substantial, the actual index readings are still positive and point to an expected expansion of employment. However, the pace of that expansion has slowed significantly. Similarly, the number of job openings did fall significantly in August, but the resulting level is still well above the norm and indicative of an overly tight labor market.

How do we know we are still in an overly tight labor market? One can look at the spread between the job openings rate and the near-term real rate of interest as calculated using the two-year Treasury yield and the core PCE price index. Rising rates and the August blow to the job openings rate have put the spread at 7.9%, much lower than its peak of 11.5% in December 2021, but it is still well above the stable range of 4-5% seen in the period before the pandemic and after the financial crisis of 2008 (it’s also much higher than the peak of 2.9% set before the financial crisis of 2008).
What does this mean? There will likely be movement in one or more of the indicators affecting the spread to cause it to revert towards the pre-pandemic mean such as 1) labor demand will extend its new decline and the job openings rate will normalize, 2) the Fed will continue to raise rates which will lead short-term interest rates higher, or 3) inflation will peak and start to ease. The Fed’s hawkishness has been priced into yields sharply over the summer, and inflation appears to be stickier after the upside surprise in the August CPI report. Therefore, that leaves some deflation in job openings and labor demand to be the main force narrowing the spread.