US Economy: Labor Market Adjustment Continues
2024-09-17
■ Manufacturing inventory increases, non-manufacturing expansion slows down
■ Employment growth slows down, and job vacancies drop to a low point
The ISM sentiment index for August showed an increase in the manufacturing sector (47.2, up 0.4 percentage points from the previous month) and the non-manufacturing sector (51.5, up 0.1 percentage points from the last month). In the manufacturing industry, new orders and production continue to shrink while inventory increases, indicating that unplanned inventory accumulates. In non-manufacturing industries, commercial activities, production, and employment continued to expand after July, but the expansion speed of commercial activities and employment has slowed.
The employment statistics for August show that the growth rate of non-farm sector employment (an increase of 142000 people from the previous month) has accelerated, the unemployment rate (4.2%) has decreased, the average weekly working hours (34.3 hours) has increased, and the average hourly wage (an increase of 0.4% from the previous month) has significantly improved, among other significant indicators. However, the non-farm sector employment figures for June and July (a cumulative decrease of 86000 people) were lowered, indicating a substantial slowdown in the average growth rate over the past three months (an increase of 116000 people from the previous month).
According to the July Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data, job vacancies (7.673 million) decreased to the lowest since January 2021. The number of job vacancies corresponding to each unemployed person (1.07 per person) has decreased compared to pre-pandemic levels, indicating that the tight labor supply and demand situation has been alleviated.
■ Employment growth slows down, and job vacancies drop to a low point
The ISM sentiment index for August showed an increase in the manufacturing sector (47.2, up 0.4 percentage points from the previous month) and the non-manufacturing sector (51.5, up 0.1 percentage points from the last month). In the manufacturing industry, new orders and production continue to shrink while inventory increases, indicating that unplanned inventory accumulates. In non-manufacturing industries, commercial activities, production, and employment continued to expand after July, but the expansion speed of commercial activities and employment has slowed.
The employment statistics for August show that the growth rate of non-farm sector employment (an increase of 142000 people from the previous month) has accelerated, the unemployment rate (4.2%) has decreased, the average weekly working hours (34.3 hours) has increased, and the average hourly wage (an increase of 0.4% from the previous month) has significantly improved, among other significant indicators. However, the non-farm sector employment figures for June and July (a cumulative decrease of 86000 people) were lowered, indicating a substantial slowdown in the average growth rate over the past three months (an increase of 116000 people from the previous month).
According to the July Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data, job vacancies (7.673 million) decreased to the lowest since January 2021. The number of job vacancies corresponding to each unemployed person (1.07 per person) has decreased compared to pre-pandemic levels, indicating that the tight labor supply and demand situation has been alleviated.