March US Jobs Report Shows Hiring Gradually Cooled

APRIL 7, 2023

U.S. hiring gradually cooled in March as employers added 236,000 workers, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%.

The labor market has remained solid a year after the Federal Reserve began aggressively raising interest rates to tame high inflation. Employers added jobs last month in leisure and hospitality, government, professional and business services and health care. They cut jobs in construction, manufacturing and retail, the Labor Department said Friday.

The labor force grew in March, helping take pressure off of wage growth. Average hourly earnings rose 4.2% last month from a year earlier, an easing from recent months.

Job gains at many services businesses are helping offset cuts at large companies in industries such as technology, finance and entertainment. Zoom Video Communications Inc. is laying off 1,300 employees, or 15% of its staff. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to cut 3,200 jobs. Walt Disney Co. began laying off workers in late March.

Weekly jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, have risen from historic lows and job openings have declined, in signs of easing demand for workers as the labor market gradually cools.

“The great labor market machine is finally slowing down some, but it’s still got a lot of strength left,” said Robert Frick, corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union.

Any impact from the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and subsequent financial turmoil won’t likely show up in March’s jobs data, which reflects hiring trends earlier in the month. Still, the banking stresses could trigger a further cooling in the job market in future months.

Small businesses and consumers might find it harder to get loans, which could ultimately result in layoffs. Workers, meanwhile, could be more hesitant to search for new jobs.

The Fed has been trying to slow investment, spending and hiring to combat inflation. The central bank raised interest rates by a quarter-percentage-point at its meeting last month, marking its ninth consecutive rate increase. So far, businesses in many industries have continued to hire.

G & B Electric Inc., which installs electrical systems in buildings throughout southeast Michigan, is seeking to add 15 workers to its staff of 62, said Jim Gierlach, the company’s owner.

Though the business has been able to find electrical apprentices, it has been a challenge to fill other roles. A job opening for a price estimator has gone unfilled for about a year. Experienced electricians are also difficult to come by, he said.

Mr. Gierlach has raised wages an average of 10% over the past year to attract workers and keep existing ones from leaving for jobs at other companies. His workers also need raises to help tackle higher prices, he said.

“They and their families are getting pinched by inflation in every aspect of life, whether it’s food or travel or housing, so they’re asking for more money,” he said.

Big wage gains have contributed to the run-up in inflation over the past couple of years, as some employers pass along price increases to offset higher labor costs. Though wage growth is still running above prepandemic levels, it has cooled in recent months, helping align with the Fed’s goal of lowering inflation.

Advertisements for signing bonuses on Indeed.com are becoming less common in lower-wage sectors. That likely reflects easing labor shortages as more workers seek jobs, a shift from earlier in the pandemic when the share of Americans ages 25 to 54 remained depressed because of factors such as child-care disruptions, fear of Covid-19 and expanded government benefits.

The job market is still tight, with the national unemployment rate hovering near half-century lows.

In Green Bay, Wis., the jobless rate is even lower, at 2.5%. Many employers in the region are still struggling to tap talent, said Matt Sullivan, who co-owns an Express Employment Professionals staffing office in Green Bay.

Manufacturers in northeast Wisconsin are hot to hire workers, he said. Other companies are trying to fill positions in engineering, sales, human resources and finance.

With such a small pool of unemployed job seekers to fill the abundant openings, Mr. Sullivan is busy seeking to recruit workers who already have jobs.

“The secret sauce is you have to pursue the people who are currently employed,” he said.