The 'Great Stay' in the U.S. jobs market grinds on. The good news is that, on average, companies are hanging on to their current workers — something reflected in the rate of layoffs' falling to a record low. Yet the hiring rate has also fallen to a level not seen since the onset of the pandemic — and before that, 2014. The upshot: If you have a job, you're unlikely to lose it these days, barring some exceptions.
While there is reason to believe it can accomplish that, there is an alternative view that it is already behind the curve and should have cut interest rates by now. 'Historically, deteriorating labor markets generate a self-reinforcing feedback loop,' former New York Federal Reserve President Bill Dudley wrote in a Bloomberg News op-ed last week.