The US Department of Labor announced on Friday that 162,000 new jobs were added in August, far exceeding market expectations. The unemployment rate remained at 4.1%, in line with expectations. Economists believe that the US has entered a new stage: there is no need to create a large number of jobs every month to maintain a stable labor market. The population is aging — the youngest group of baby boomers is already eligible to claim social security pensions this year; at the same time, immigration controls have been tightened, and the supply of new labor has been reduced. In other words, the US does not have enough available labor to achieve large-scale employment growth. Bank of America economists estimate that adding about 20,000 new jobs every month will be enough to stop the unemployment rate from rising. Judging by historical standards, this is an extremely low rate of employment growth. In the 25 years before the outbreak of the epidemic, an average of 120,000 new jobs were added each month. At the same time, the job market is showing a situation where companies rarely lay off employees, but they are unwilling to recruit new people on a large scale. The number of first-time jobless claims, for example, is near an all-time low, while Labor Department data from earlier this week showed that recruitment rates were also sluggish.

The US Department of Labor announced on Friday that 162,000 new jobs were added in August, far exceeding market expectations. The unemployment rate remained at 4.1%, in line with expectations. Economists believe that the US has entered a new stage: there is no need to create a large number of jobs every month to maintain a stable labor market. The population is aging — the youngest group of baby boomers is already eligible to claim social security pensions this year; at the same time, immigration controls have been tightened, and the supply of new labor has been reduced. In other words, the US does not have enough available labor to achieve large-scale employment growth. Bank of America economists estimate that adding about 20,000 new jobs every month will be enough to stop the unemployment rate from rising. Judging by historical standards, this is an extremely low rate of employment growth. In the 25 years before the outbreak of the epidemic, an average of 120,000 new jobs were added each month. At the same time, the job market is showing a situation where companies rarely lay off employees, but they are unwilling to recruit new people on a large scale. The number of first-time jobless claims, for example, is near an all-time low, while Labor Department data from earlier this week showed that recruitment rates were also sluggish.