Data for May was revised lower to show payrolls rising 306,000 instead of 339,000 as previously reported.Victor J. Blue
Though job growth is slowing, the labor market remains unbowed despite the Federal Reserve delivering 500 basis points worth of rate hikes since March 2022 when it embarked on its fastest monetary policy tightening campaign in more than 40 years. For now, it is helping the economy to defy economists’ predictions of a recession.
While the higher paying industries like technology and finance are purging workers, sectors like leisure and hospitality as well local government education are still catching up after losing employees and experiencing accelerated retirements during the COVID-19 pandemic. But some economists argued that worker hoarding was masking weakness in the economy, pointing to worker productivity, which slumped in the first quarter. They also noted that while gross domestic product, the traditional measure of economic growth, was solid in the January-March quarter, an alternative gauge, gross domestic income, has contracted for two straight quarters.