Working Well

The labor market may, emphasis on “may”, be turning a corner! After deteriorating noticeably in December and early January, the number of workers filing for first-time unemployment claims, a proxy for layoffs, eased for the third straight week to a still staggeringly high 779,000, their best level since November but four times their pre-pandemic rate. Moreover, January net job growth was 49,000, following a decline of 227,000 in December.