The August 2023 Jobs Report & July 2023 JOLTS: The Current U.S. Employment Situation

The U.S. economy saw more jobs than expected in August, but still much less than at the start of the year. According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s jobs report, 187,000 jobs were added in August, the same amount as July (before it was revised down to 157,000 in this report). Piling on to the slow growth in the summer months, the unemployment rate in August rose to 3.8%, the highest it’s been since February 2022. The number of unemployed persons also increased by 514,000 to 6.4 million.

Meanwhile, July’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS) released Wednesday showed the number of job openings reduced, down 338,000 to 8.8 million. Hiring activity also slowed slightly, with the number of hires decreasing to 5.8 million, and total separations decreased to 5.5 million. Voluntary quits took up 3.5 million of those separations, down 100,000 from the previous month, and layoffs and discharges bumped up by the same amount to 1.6 million.

Key highlights from the reports include:

• In addition to July’s job numbers revision, June’s total also decreased. June was revised down by 80,000, from 185,000 to 105,000 total number of jobs added.
• Declines in job openings were noted in specific sectors: professional and business services (-198,000), healthcare and social assistance (-130,000), and state and local government (-67,000).
• Larger establishments with more than 5,000 employees experienced decreases in their quits rates and total separations rates.

When looking at what industries are hiring now, employment continued to trend up in healthcare, leisure and hospitality, social assistance, and construction. However, employment in the transportation and warehousing and information industries declined, though some economists predict this is a one-off situation due to business closures and the Hollywood strikes. Most industries saw little to no growth.

Despite the slowdown in the labor market, there are still great opportunities for those looking for a job and the ones doing the hiring. iHire can assist both job seekers and employers in achieving their objectives and thriving in the current market landscape.