Jobs report

For applicants, the interviewing can seem endless. For employers, the pool of workers is small and the future may feel uncertain.

November job openings also trended down but were still above pre-pandemic levels.

Workers prefer the stability of permanent jobs, and permanent workers tend to be more productive.

Retail hiring for the holiday shopping period is roughly flat, while transportation and warehousing are down from last year.

In November, the number of people who want to have full-time work but haven't found it due to economic reasons declined by about 300,000.

The number of new jobs created each month has been trending down for the past year — but there is also a good amount of positive data in the latest report.

Average hourly earnings rose 4.1% year-over-year in October; the rate peaked near 6% in March 2022. The slowdown in wage growth is helping the Fed wrestle inflation lower.

Experts are predicting a slight decrease in wage growth, a drop that get us closer to pre-pandemic rates.

It's probably more a sign of pandemic labor market weirdness than a coming recession.

Even a small increase in unemployment can result in disproportionate effects on marginalized groups.