Here is Some Good News For The Job Market

For a change, after months of bad, no-good, terrible news about the job market, the Wall Street Journal reported that the number of help-wanted ads returned to pre-pandemic levels in January. Sectors that weathered the pandemic storm relatively well show signs of hiring picking up, after an initial sluggish start to the year.

The large job aggregation site, Indeed.com, said postings were modestly up in January and February. The number of new postings to the site, however, has appreciably grown since hitting a low in May. Lately, though, the pace of new openings has subsided somewhat.

It’s highly likely that corporations are holding off hiring until there is greater certainty over containing Covid-19 by rolling out the vaccinations. Also, it’s understandable that companies are waiting to fully see President Joe Biden’s plans to reinvigorate the economy and improve the job market before they put out job advertisements to hire new people. We are still waiting for the approval from Congress for Biden’s $1.9 trillion financial stimulus program.

Jed Kolko, chief economist at Indeed, said, “Industries that recovered quickly from the initial shock of the pandemic have led growth in job openings,” which include warehousing, construction and delivery services that have all held steady over the course of the pandemic.

On the other end of the spectrum, there have been more jobs listed on the site for higher-wage roles based in technology and finance. Kolko said, “I think those are sectors that hire based on where they see the economy going longer term.” Optimistically, he added, “Restaurants, beauty-and-wellness jobs and hair salons will hire pretty quickly if demand picks up.”

As soon as the vast majority of Americans are vaccinated and another round of financial aid is sent out to people in need, we’ll start to see the beginning of the end of this time period. Then, we’ll soon see businesses reopen, the overall mood improve and hiring will aggressively happen.