Americans' job anxiety soars to highest level in 10 years
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The unemployment rate is pretty low at the moment, but under the hood Americans sure are nervous about the job market.
Why it matters: Add rising job anxiety to the growing list of soft economic indicators that may be signaling trouble ahead.
By the numbers: The share of consumers who expect unemployment to rise over the next year surged to 66% in March, the highest level in a decade, per University of Michigan data analyzed by Bank of America Institute.
- Meanwhile, the ZipRecruiter Job Seeker Confidence index fell 3.6 points in the first quarter this year. That's in line with another employee confidence measure, from Glassdoor, that Axios' Courtenay Brown reported on earlier this month.
- Government workers, in the midst of unprecedented disruptions, saw their confidence index levels plunge the most, according to ZipRecruiter.
Yes, but: People's feelings about the economy aren't always lining up with their actions, as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell pointed out at a press conference earlier this week.
- "There have been plenty of times where people are saying very downbeat things about the economy and then going out and buying a new car," he said.
Zoom out: The big issue in the labor market at the moment is hiring. It's slow, and back to 2013 levels, says Julia Pollak, the chief economist at ZipRecruiter.
- "People are really struggling a bit more to find new jobs," she says, adding that the firm is seeing more applications per job posting than a year ago.
Those struggling most? Workers in the middle of the labor market, those with some college education or just a Bachelor's degree.
- In other words, a "pretty large share of the workforce," she says.
