Uh-Oh: The Job Market Boom Is Over

We all know how many jobs were lost due to the pandemic. Maybe not exact numbers, but it was only a couple years ago and we all lived through that awful time.

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But then came the post-pandemic job market boom! Remember when there were Help Wanted signs in almost every restaurant or store because there were way more jobs than people to fill them? Wages and signing bonuses rose because that was the only way to get people back, and it helped.

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Buuuuuuuuut now there’s some re-balancing going on…

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Here are Five Fast Facts on the end of the job market boom:

1. 📈 Last Year - In March of 2022, the demand for jobs peaked at about 12 million. This was roughly double the number of unemployed people looking for a job at the time. If you couldn’t find a job, it’s because you weren’t trying.

2. 📉 This Year - In July of this year, job openings were a little under 9 million, with just under 6 million unemployed folks. The situation was better, but still there were more jobs out there than people to fill them. We’re not math experts, but how did 3 million people find jobs but there’s still the same number of unemployed?!  Maybe this helps explain it…

3. 🧑‍⚖️ Big Drops - Some of the largest drops in job demand are in the professional and business fields. Job listings in law, consulting, and accounting have fallen off a cliff, from about 9.5% of all jobs available down to about 5.5%. Or maybe the country just has all the lawyers and accountants that are needed!

4. 👍 Recovering - The backfilling of lots of open jobs in restaurants, hospitals, and nursing homes has been happening slowly but surely, meaning a lot of the positions lost in the pandemic have been filled. And for that we’re VERY grateful!

5. ❄️Cooling Comparison - If you compare to 2019, job growth in August of this year is just above the pre-pandemic average, and revisions actually show it was a bit lower. This definitely points to a cooling in the job market. With less competition for workers, wage growth is cooling, too.

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🔥Bottom line: We’re in a delicate time right now. Obviously, we want to see people who want to work get the jobs they need. But the fewer jobs there are available, the less likely we’ll keep seeing wage growth. This is bad for workers but good for employers. Earnings are currently just slightly above inflation, which means more money in workers’ pockets, but that means inflation doesn’t keep going down.

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It’s a tough situation, and one that doesn’t have a simple answer. Bottom line is that normal folks just need to focus on bringing those Paychecks in as best they can. And let’s hope our government makes good decisions to manage things back into the prosperity America had before the pandemic threw everything all out of whack. 

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How’s the job market where you live?

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