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https://www.npr.org/2023/07/07/1186278500/jobs-labor-market-employers-inflation-recession-interest-rates
https://www.npr.org/2023/07/07/1186278500/jobs-labor-market-employers-inflation-recession-interest-rates
Looks like the markets are pretty apathetic to the news today. Economists had expected 225K jobs added, so the 209K is a little below expectations, but not a huge miss. Unemployment remains at a very healthy 3.6% mirroring the pre-pandemic landscape with one of the lowest rates in decades.
I wonder how much of this low unemployment is demographic. Aside from the pandemic, the last decade has been marked by increasing Baby Boomer retirements (in 2023, the youngest Boomers turn 59, and the oldest are 77). While that large cohort is leaving the workplace, the cohorts behind it are smaller (in relative terms, not absolute terms), so there are more roles to fill with fewer people to fill them. That allows employees to be choosier when looking for jobs, which has been great for the average worker.
The real unemployment rate is much higher https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-labor-force-participation-rate.htm
Take 3 adults. Before 2008 2 of them had a job and the other didn't. Since that time it has fallen even lower. Most of the loss being from prime age and the young dropping out of the workforce, but hey if we keep blaming it on retirement maybe we can ignore the problem long enough that we don't have to fix it.
Our government makes life hell on earth, our economists tell us that it can't be any other way.