Unemployment hits four-year high
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What does the recent increase in unemployment rates signify?
The word of the day today is portmanteau. Two words combined into one. What's that? Use it in a sentence? Sure. How's this? What we've got here is a meh-conomy. From American Public Media, this is Marketplace.
In Los Angeles, I'm Kai Risdahl. It is Tuesday today, the 16th of December. Good as always to have you along, everybody. Meh and economy.
How are workforce re-entries impacting the job market?
Mehconomy. Get it? I confess here that it's not my original thought. I saw it someplace this morning. I would credit you if I remembered where. But it is kind of apt, no, given today's November and partial October jobs report. 4.6% is the unemployment rate, the highest it's been in more than four years, and the latest sign that the U.S. labor market just keeps slowing down.
What trends are emerging in the healthcare job sector?
That 4.6%, by the by, is up from an even 4% at the start of this year. The thing is, it's not happening because people are losing their jobs left and right. Marketplace's Daniel Ackerman explains what's going on. Amanda Augustine is a career coach with CareerMinds, and she says many of her new clients have been out of work for months now. It's a lot of people who have been unemployed for quite some time who are now saying, well, whatever I've been doing is clearly not working. I need some extra help. She says employers aren't laying off a ton of people. There's been no spike in first-time unemployment claims. Firms are just reluctant to hire. Even the interview process takes a longer time.
Why are young people increasingly turning to trade schools?
And so the share of people seeking jobs just keeps climbing. And one reason for the uptick in November's unemployment rate was workforce re-entry, says Tuan Nguyen, an economist with RSM. Meaning that there were people on the sideline rejoining the market again. And he says workforce reentry can be tough to interpret. It could mean people are more confident in their ability to land a job, or it could mean more people feel they have no choice but to land a job, says Ron Hetrick, an economist with the labor data firm Lightcast. So these are people who were spouses of people or family members. They didn't need to work. And then the primary person loses their job. So these people reenter the labor force.
And then there's the stuff that the headline unemployment rate just doesn't capture. Hetrick says the number of part-time workers who'd rather be full-time is at the highest level since March of 2021. That's a pretty big deal. That's a sign of economic stress. And it's one reason the unemployment rate isn't always the best indicator of what it feels like to be in the labor market, says Sarah Foster, an economic analyst with Bankrate. She says even though 4.6% isn't sky high compared to the long-term average... People who want a job, who are stuck at a position that they don't like, you know, want to change something about their job circumstances, this is not an easy labor market for them.
What challenges do part-time workers face in the current economy?
She says anxiety is being felt by workers and would-be workers alike. I'm Daniel Ackerman for Marketplace. So let's talk about where people are getting jobs. Pretty much the only industries that are doing a decent amount of hiring right now are health care and social assistance. 64,000 new jobs in November. But as Marketplace's Samantha Fields reminds us, past performance is no guarantee of future results. If it weren't for health care and social assistance, hiring would have been totally flat last month. Healthcare is really the last remaining reliable source of jobs growth for today's job market. Daniel Zhao at Glassdoor says that's been true for much of this year. There have been multiple months where all other industries have actually lost jobs, whereas healthcare has continued to steadily add jobs.
The industry tends to be resilient, even in recessions. People always need health care, no matter what's happening in the economy. And these days, Alex Jaquez at the Groundwork Collaborative says need is growing. The baby boomer population, a very large segment of the overall population, is aging. And what we know about aging is that it comes for all of us.
How is artificial intelligence affecting entry-level job opportunities?
And you use more health care as you get older.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What does the recent increase in unemployment rates signify?
0:02–0:43
2
How are workforce re-entries impacting the job market?
0:43–1:12
3
What trends are emerging in the healthcare job sector?
1:12–1:56
4
Why are young people increasingly turning to trade schools?
1:56–3:18
5
What challenges do part-time workers face in the current economy?
3:18–4:27
6
How is artificial intelligence affecting entry-level job opportunities?
4:27–5:31
7
What role does advertising revenue play in the economy's recovery?
5:31–7:05
8
What should we expect for the future of the labor market?
7:05–26:13