Job seekers attend the JobNewsUSA.com South Florida Job Fair on June 26, 2024 at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida.
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In another sign of cracks in the U.S. labor market, a New York Federal Reserve survey on Monday showed a decline in the number of people claiming to be employed, a surge in job seekers and growing dissatisfaction with wages.
The three annual measures of labor force activity, confidence and satisfaction reflected growing concerns about job security in July, as well as an increase in the number of people expected to stay in work beyond typical retirement age. Workers are still seeking higher starting wages, but are being offered lower ones.
Unemployment continues to rise, and policymakers on Wall Street and the Federal Reserve are watching developments closely for clues about the direction of the U.S. economy.
The findings showed that 88% of employed people were still employed when the survey was last conducted in March, the lowest figure since 2014. , the highest level in the history of the survey.
In addition, the proportion of people looking for new jobs in the past four weeks surged to 28.4%, an increase of 9 percentage points from the same period last year, setting a new record high since March 2014.
In terms of salary, satisfaction with current salary dropped to 56.7%, a drop of more than 3 percentage points from the same period in 2023. It also dropped to 44.2% from 53.5% last year, with the proportion most pronounced among women, respondents without a college degree and those with household incomes below $60,000.
The typical salary for a full-time job fell slightly over the past four months to $68,905, while the average “reservation wage,” or the minimum level at which a worker would accept a new job, rose to $81,147, about $2,500 more than a year ago, but the increase Not big.
Finally, the proportion of respondents who expect to continue working over the age of 62 rose to 48.3%, while the proportion of respondents who said they expected to continue working over the age of 67 rose to 34.2%, an increase of more than 2 percentage points.
While the 4.3% unemployment rate is considered low by historical standards, it has been rising recently, raising concerns about broader erosion in the economy. Nonfarm payrolls increased by only 114,000 in July, so the August report, due in early September, will be closely watched.
After the latest meeting, Fed officials said job growth had “slowed.” The central bank is widely expected to cut its main borrowing rate by 25 percentage points at its next meeting in September, the first cut in more than four years.
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