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.

Overall, the jobs data shows a labor market that continues to hum along in some sectors, but is slowing down in others in a sign that the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hikes to fight inflation and having some impact though the job is far from done.

Employers continued to add jobs in health care, business services, and construction. But retailers cut jobs last month, and factory employment was relatively flat.

>209,000 jobs

How many of this is actual openings vs companies and hiring agencies putting up fake job offers in order to harvest personal data?

Help I work 3 jobs but none will let me do full time for benefits