on Thursday. The uptick could be a sign that the labor market is continuing to soften due to high interest rates pursued by the Federal Reserve, which has been trying to weaken demand to drive down inflation.
if today’s weekly jobless claims are any indication,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at FWDBONDS, a financial markets research company. “The labor market shows some signs of rebalancing with fewer job openings posted around the country, and now company layoffs are picking up, hinting at caution on the part of companies as they weigh the outlook for the second half of the year.”
Additionally, the most recent data show job openings fell 3.7% in March to just under 8.5 million, thesince February 2021. The job opening numbers fell below expectations, continuing a trend of slowly declining job openings over the past few years.