We've received reports that the U.S. unemployment rate is 3.5% and wonder if this is correct given the number of layoffs that are happening in tech companies - and now even in other companies like McDonald's.
First, I had to find out where this number is coming from because it was simply reported from this Twitter account. Many sources, like USA Today, and The Economic Times, are reporting this. It looks like the number is coming from the US Jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and it was released this past Friday.
It's a 39-page document, which I'm guessing you (and me) aren't going to real all of it.
Some of the key things it reported are as follows:
- Unemployment has fallen from just over 6% in March 2021 to 3.5% in March 2023
- 5.8 million is the number of unemployed persons. I'm assuming these are people 18 years or older.
- Nonfarm payrolls is +236,000 -vs- 326,000 predicted
- Average hourly earnings from last month is 0.3% -vs- 0.2% predicted
- Average hourly earnings, year to year is 4.2% -vs- 4.6% predicted
Hospitality was the largest gainer for jobs, with 72,000 new workers in March 2023. Temporary help services was the second-largest gainer of jobs, with 65,000 workers added last month.
With this, it looks like markets are pricing in a 67% chance that the FED will raise rates by another 0.25% in May, which is up from a 50% chance. It's likely there will be one more 0.25% rate increase this year.
Unemployment will supposedly rise this year as slower growth in the U.S. labor market happens later this year due to more jobless claims being filed and a cooling in labor demand that is expected to increase throughout the year.
What do you think of this jobs report? Are tech companies having layoffs, making this number inaccurate?
Online writer since 2008. I enjoy writing and have written nearly a thousand tech related articles about electric vehicles, software, tech companies, hardware, gaming, tech related products, and company developments in tech.
