Even with inflation hitting its highest point in four decades and recession fears
mounting, the job market is resilient.

Economists say the solid job growth numbers are a promising sign for the economy’s
ability to weather potential adverse conditions in coming months and could be
a sign that a potential recession may look different than past downturns on the
employment front.

“With over 6 million job seekers and 11 million job openings, each month we have
witnessed hundreds of thousands of workers being added to the payrolls,” said
Jeffrey Korzenik, chief investment strategist for Fifth Third Bank. “Although some
layoffs are coming, the historically unprecedented labor gap suggests payroll gains
will continue to be positive, adding economic buoyancy despite the stress of Fed
rate hikes.”

Richard Moody, chief economist at Regions Financial Corp., said the industry-diverse
nature of hiring activity should allay concerns about durability of the expansion,
even if the pace of job growth has slowed relative to earlier points in the ongoing
economic recovery from the pandemic.

Moody said the data suggests job growth is settling into a more sustainable pace.
“While the number of open jobs will likely fall in the months ahead as the economy
continues to slow, we’re a long way from the labor market being balanced, and
that labor force participation remains below pre-pandemic norms makes labor
market balance much more difficult to achieve. It still seems that, for many firms,
finding enough people to hire is a far bigger problem than having too many people
working,” Moody said.

That echoes sentiments from hiring managers and recruiters, who say the pace of
activity hasn’t slowed much despite recession fears, inflation concerns and worries
about sagging sales activity.

Source: Milwaukee Business Journal