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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Stocks sink despite Friday's report that hiring cooled in September
Hiring slowed in September, in a sign the red-hot job market may be cooling.
The Labor2 Department reported Friday that U.S. employers added 263,000 jobs last month — a modest decrease from the 315,000 jobs added in August. The unemployment rate dipped to 3.5%, matching a half-century low.
Major stock indexes tumbled more than 2% on Friday as Wall Street worried that the cooling did not go far enough to dampen inflation, currently running above 8%, or to convince the Federal Reserve to hit pause on raising interest rates. The Dow fell more than 625 points to close at 29,302.
For months, job openings have far outnumbered unemployed3 workers, driving up wages. The Fed is eager to see signs of a more balanced job market, as it tries to curb4 uncomfortably high inflation by steep and steady increases in interest rates.
The Fed got some encouraging news earlier in the week, when the Labor Department reported that job vacancies5 had declined by 10% in August, meaning employers are not as desperate to find workers as a few months ago. At the same time, the pace of hiring held fairly steady.
"I think this is good news for the Federal Reserve," said Nela Richardson, chief economist6 at the payroll7 processing firm ADP. "You are seeing some softening8 in early-stage demand [for workers] but still continuation in hiring."
Manufacturers added 22,000 jobs in September, Friday's report showed — down from 27,000 in August and 37,000 in July. A survey of factory managers released earlier this week pointed9 to a less frantic10 need for additional employees.
More than half the factory managers polled said demand for their products appears to be softening, making them reluctant to hire additional workers.
"It's really hard to hire somebody this month and three, four months from now let them go. So people are being a lot more cautious," said Tim Fiore, who conducts the survey for the Institute for Supply Management.
"It's not layoffs11, primarily," Fiore said. "It's [hiring] freezes. And when people are quitting, they're not being replaced as quickly. So that's a clear change from where we've been over the last year-and-a-half, two years."
Manufacturing represents a small slice of the overall workforce12, however. A similar ISM survey of service-sector businesses found no slowdown in hiring.
Industries with the biggest job gains last month included bars and restaurants (60,000) and health care (60,000). Government employment fell by 25,000.
Construction companies continued to hire workers, even though homebuilding activity has slowed in the face of rising mortgage rates. The construction industry added 19,000 jobs in September — up from 11,000 the month before.
Looking to see how many workers come back to the job market
The U.S. has now replaced all of the jobs that were lost in the early months of the pandemic. Continued job gains will depend in part on the number of workers who are available.
"The more people who come back to the labor market, the more likely we'll see some loosening in hiring conditions and a continuation of these steady gains," said Richardson.
August saw a big influx13 of new and returning workers, as nearly 800,000 people joined or rejoined the labor force. That trend did not continue into September, however. Friday's report shows the workforce shrank last month by 57,000, which is why the unemployment rate declined.
"If the health impact of COVID-19 continues to diminish, I am optimistic that more workers will reenter the labor force," Fed governor Lisa Cook said Thursday. "But there is a risk that labor supply remains14 below its pre-pandemic trend."
Shortages of both workers and critical supplies have made it hard for businesses to keep pace with strong demand for goods and services. As a result, prices have soared. The Fed initially15 thought those bottlenecks16 would ease on their own. But despite some encouraging signs — like a drop in lumber17 and used car prices — inflation remains stubbornly high. Prices in August were up 8.3% from a year ago.
Since March, the Fed has been aggressively raising interest rates, in an effort to tamp18 down demand and bring prices under control.
Cook and her colleagues on the Fed's governing board have made it clear that interest rates will remain elevated until there's convincing evidence that prices are leveling off.
"Inflation is too high, it must come down, and we will keep at it until the job is done," Cook said Thursday, in her first public speech as a central bank policymaker.
1 transcript | |
n.抄本,誊本,副本,肄业证书 | |
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2 labor | |
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦 | |
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3 unemployed | |
adj.失业的,没有工作的;未动用的,闲置的 | |
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4 curb | |
n.场外证券市场,场外交易;vt.制止,抑制 | |
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5 vacancies | |
n.空房间( vacancy的名词复数 );空虚;空白;空缺 | |
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6 economist | |
n.经济学家,经济专家,节俭的人 | |
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7 payroll | |
n.工资表,在职人员名单,工薪总额 | |
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8 softening | |
变软,软化 | |
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9 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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10 frantic | |
adj.狂乱的,错乱的,激昂的 | |
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11 layoffs | |
临时解雇( layoff的名词复数 ); 停工,停止活动 | |
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12 workforce | |
n.劳动大军,劳动力 | |
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13 influx | |
n.流入,注入 | |
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14 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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15 initially | |
adv.最初,开始 | |
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16 bottlenecks | |
n.瓶颈( bottleneck的名词复数 );瓶颈路段(常引起交通堵塞);(尤指工商业发展的)瓶颈;阻碍 | |
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17 lumber | |
n.木材,木料;v.以破旧东西堆满;伐木;笨重移动 | |
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18 tamp | |
v.捣实,砸实 | |
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