The Job Market Received Even Extra Stagnant In December

Employers introduced the fewest hiring plans since 2015 final 12 months, because the job market stayed entrenched in a low hiring, low firing, low quitting limbo.

U.S. employers introduced 769,953 hiring plans in 2024, down 1.3% from 2023, to a nine-year low, consulting agency Challenger, Grey & Christmas mentioned in its month-to-month job market report Thursday. Companies additionally elevated layoffs, with the  761,358 job cuts introduced in 2024 up 5.5% over the 12 months earlier than and probably the most since 2020.

Employers Aren’t Hiring and Firing; Employees Aren’t Quitting

The information added to the image of a job market that is stayed comparatively steady, if stagnant, in current months. Most employers are hiring few staff, however are additionally resisting mass layoffs. Uncertainty concerning the trajectory of the economic system below incoming president Donald Trump could have extra employers in a holding sample, a number of economists mentioned.

“Financial uncertainty appears to have left many employers in a wait-and-see place, and subsequently some are preserving job postings up for the proper candidate which will apply however they’re being extra selective than in the previous couple of years after they have been ravenous for staff,” Justin Begley, an economist at Moody’s Analytics, wrote in a commentary.

The job market is now not as scorching because it was within the fast aftermath of the pandemic when staff have been in excessive demand. Nonetheless, current official information on jobs has proven hiring, firing and quitting are all working at decreased ranges in comparison with pre-pandemic occasions.

Though the Challenger report confirmed elevated layoffs, Begley mentioned the uptick did not essentially imply the job market is taking a nosedive, noting that the dismissals have been concentrated in simply 4 industries: expertise, retail, well being care/merchandise and monetary providers.

Surveys from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) present layoffs have been close to file lows as not too long ago as November.

The Challenger report serves as an indicator of what to anticipate from the BLS jobs report for December which is due Thursday. Economists think about the BLS report the “gold commonplace” of labor market information, and the info have a tendency to maneuver monetary markets greater than studies from personal firms like Challenger and ADP.