The labor market has stabilized after its post-pandemic boom, said Eric Merlis, managing director and co-head of global markets at Citizens Bank.
“The labor hoarding that happened in ‘22 and ‘23, that certainly appears over,” he told the Globe. “What you saw in ‘22 and 23 with the elevated levels of openings was, ‘if we can find the talent, we should go get it. Business seems great and we don’t want to lose anybody.’ I think now companies can afford to be much more targeted on their hires.”
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In July, job openings in Rhode Island dropped half a percentage point to 4.7 percent compared to the previous month. There were fewer job postings from July 2023, when they stood at 5.3 percent, government figures showed. The Ocean State’s rate of openings nearly matched the national level, which in July was at 4.6 percent.
While employers were still recruiting, some appeared to be letting go of workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as layoffs went up slightly to 1.6 percent compared to the previous month’s 1.4 percent rate.
Meanwhile, the rate of people quitting their jobs dropped for the month but was unchanged from the same time a year ago, one sign that employees are less confident about the labor market and staying put in their current jobs.
“The more positive spin on that might be employees are actually happy with their employment, they’re happy with the state of their personal finances and, you know, aren’t looking to leave as much,” Merlis told the Globe. “I also think, relatively speaking, there aren’t as many opportunities. So, people are going to be much more reluctant to commit to go find something else rather than, you know, continue to stay in a situation they are in.”
Rhode Island’s labor market appeared to also be in line with what some of the state’s New England neighbors were witnessing with their job sectors.
Massachusetts, for example, recorded a drop of nearly a percentage point in job openings to 4.5 percent in July while hiring stayed essentially stable at close to 3 percent. There were also few layoffs in the month, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed. In Connecticut, the rate of job openings in July was the same as Rhode Island’s at 4.7 percent. Hiring ticked up slightly as well, while layoffs were barely changed from June.
Immediately after the US economy moved on from pandemic-era restrictions, employers were desperate to keep their workers and were aggressively recruiting. But they are now a bit more strategic over their hiring, a shift that is also happening in the Ocean State.
“I do think companies over-hired during the pandemic. And now you’re starting to see that kind of normalize a little bit,” Merlis said. “I don’t think Rhode Island is an outlier in any particular way.”
Merlis added that some of thelarge companies in the state are not reporting major layoffs, an indication the labor market in Rhode Island is still in good shape.
“What I would be most concerned with if I lived in Rhode Island obviously is, and for our bank obviously…is if Rhode Island is starting to look like an outlier in any of the data,” he told the Globe. “And that’s not what we are seeing.”
Omar Mohammed can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter (X) @shurufu.
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Publish date : 2024-09-17 09:41:00
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