The labor market is tight but less "unhealthy"
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In the first quarter, companies were less apt to mention labor shortages on earnings calls, according to Sentieo, which tracks English-language transcripts from more than 9,000 global companies.
Why it matters: This could point to a slight cooling in the labor market — an early sign that companies are a little less frantic about the dearth of available employees to hire, even as the unemployment rate is quite low.
- Labor shortage discussions peaked last year, said Nick Mazing, a researcher at Sentieo, an AlphaSense company. "More recently, we started to see layoffs and other belt-tightening announcements, indicating a turn for the worse."
- Layoffs at startups are rising, according to data tracked at layoffs.fyi.
- Signs are coming from large employers, too: Walmart and Amazon both said recently that they'd over-hired.
Meanwhile, Americans' outlook on the job market is still very good — but not as awesomely good as a month ago, according to the Conference Board's monthly survey of consumer sentiment in May.
- 51.8% of consumers said jobs were “plentiful,” down from 54.8% in April.
- 12.5% of consumers said jobs are “hard to get,” up from 10.1%.
The bottom line: Back in March, Fed chair Jerome Powell said the job market was tight to an unhealthy level; these signs show that the labor market is eating more greens.
