Growth of Labor Demand slows in the United States

Spring is here as rising temperatures indicate. It's the time when optimism gets a boost and we look forward to summer fun. Unfortunately current developments in the job market cause some concern. While labor demand is still rising, the speed of growth is slowing. Employers in the US increased their online job postings by 3.1% in April as compared to March. Since February this is the third consecutive month of declining growth. While demand increased by 6.1% in February as compared to January, month-over-month growth in March was only 4.1% which in April fell by another percentage point. A look at the five largest US metro areas shows that four out of five had less growth in April than in March.

United States Job Openings
January 2007 - April 2011

The rising cost of energy seems to take effect on the US economy where consumers have to spend more and more of their disposable income for every day purchases like gas, food and clothing. With consumption slowing employers won't produce as much, hence may put hiring plans on hold. If the current trend continues the job market may get stuck like last year when growth leveled off at the beginning of summer.

Comment by Henning Seip on May 4, 2011 at 10:50am: ADP published it's employment report this morning. According to ADP, "employment in the nonfarm private business sector rose 179,000 from March to April on a seasonally adjusted basis". Here is the link: http://www.adpemploymentreport.com/

Comment by Henning Seip on May 5, 2011 at 7:57am: Monster Employment Index Maintains Healthy Levels of Growth: April Index Reports 9% Year-over-Year Increase. Link: http://about-monster.com/sites/default/files/employment-index/MEIAp...

Comment by Henning Seip on May 6, 2011 at 8:36am: Bureau of Labor Statistics: Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 244,000 in April, and the unemployment rate edged up to 9.0 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
Job gains occurred in several service-providing industries, manufacturing, and mining. Link: http://1.usa.gov/j8PKZJ

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