WASHINGTON — Month after month, the nation’s job market has stood its ground against howling headwinds — rising interest rates, chronic inflation, major bank failures and economic uncertainties across the world.
The job market has so far withstood the Federal Reserve’s aggressive drive to stamp out high inflation, which last year hit a four-decade high and is still well above the Fed’s 2% target. On Wednesday, the Fed raised its benchmark rate for a 10th time since March 2022, a move that will likely further drive up borrowing costs for businesses and consumers.Fed Chair Jerome Powell himself sounded somewhat mystified this week by the job market’s durability.
One way to do that, Powell has said, is for employers to post fewer job openings. So far, so good: The government reported this week that job openings fell in March to 9.6 million — a still-high figure but down from a peak of 12 million in March 2022 and the fewest in nearly two years. Still, steadily rising borrowing costs have inflicted some damage. Pounded by higher mortgage rates, sales of existing homes were down a sharp 22% in March from a year earlier. Investment in housing has cratered over the past year.
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