it can take an annoyingly long time after your dish is done cooking for the pot to cool to the point where you can safely open the lid. And so it is with theThe evidence that the labor market has moved past its overpressurized 2021-2022 levels continues to mount, but it is remarkable that it has remainedIndeed, the latest data out Wednesday morning reveal a job market that is decisively cooling, yet also better by many measures than it ever was in the years before the pandemic.
The report showed that the number of layoffs and discharges fell by 155,000. That amounts to 1% of total employment, down from 1.1% in February and only a tick above the all-time low of 0.9%.Fed officials have often cited the ratio of job openings to unemployed workers as an indicator of just how tight the labor market really is, and this data series tells the story.
But the March ratio is still higher than it ever was before the pandemic; the previous all-time high was 1.24 .