Later this week we have some data points on how the labor market is going. Along with the unemployment rate, the employment report will be released on Friday.
However, on Wednesday, the July job openings and labor rotation survey was conducted.
Headlines are that they have little change in all categories. Job openings, employment, layoffs, stop. They are all about the same as last month.
The job market is a bit stuck. It's not happening much.
“If you have a job and are very happy with it, things are pink,” said Guy Berger, a senior fellow at the Burning Glass Institute.
That's because the layoffs are low and it's unlikely to lose your job.
But those looking for a job are struggling because they are not satisfied with theirs or are unemployed.
“Man, that's difficult. It's difficult to find a job,” Burger said. “But that was a photo from the past year. It's not much fluctuating.”
It's not a dramatic way. However, the labor market has been cooled for several months.
“Healthcare has been the only industry that has really been strong,” said Daniel Zhao of Glassdoor.
But now, it appears that employment in healthcare is beginning to slow down.
“And that's a concern because healthcare has been a reliable pillar of strength for the job market,” Zhao said. “Without healthcare and social support, we would have actually had net employment losses over the past three months.”
This slowdown in the healthcare industry is not just featured in the Jolts report. Zhao said it also appears in Glassdoor's employee trust survey. Healthcare workers have less than 50% confidence.
“We see black women in particular and are suffering from quite a significant unemployment,” said Kate Byrne, chief economist at the Institute for Women's Policy. “In the last six months they have lost over 300,000 jobs.”
Byrne noted that black women are overrepresented in the care industry.
“It's probably the weakening of the healthcare and social assistance sector that we can partially explain what's happening with black women,” Byrne said.
Though few healthcare workers have left their jobs, Byrne said it's a sign they don't think they have the strength or opportunity they have before.
