The final months of the year normally bring a lot of seasonal employment, but November 2013 had a lot more job opportunities than usual. Employers sought out new workers at a record rate, a sign that the overall economy was strong during the final quarter of the year. This upswing in open positions is a positive sign for the unemployed, who now have less competition for each new job.
Employers posted four million job opportunities during November 2013, the highest amount in over five years. Some of the growing job market can be attributed to seasonal needs, as retailers increased payrolls to get ready for Black Friday and the rest of the busy holiday shopping season. Despite the number of new positions opening up, hiring in November ticked up by just 0.2 percent, indicating that not all the new positions were actually filled. A total of 203,000 new jobs were filled for the month, bringing the unemployment rate down to 7 percent, much better than the expected 180,000 jobs and 7.2 to 7.3 percent unemployment rate that economists initially predicted.
The employment figures were buoyed by the fact that a number of people quit looking for job opportunities altogether. Unemployed people who stop looking for work are no longer counted as unemployed by the federal government for the purposes of these statistics. Another factor affecting the data is that over two million people quit their jobs, which created more job opportunities for those seeking employment. The fact that so many quit their jobs is a positive sign for the economy, because most workers won't walk away from gainful employment unless they have a better job lined up or at least have confidence they can find another one.
The trend toward more available jobs may not be permanent, though. A recent study by the National Association for Business Economics shows that businesses aren't expecting a big hike in hiring in the new year, despite the fact that most of the businesses polled expected the economy to grow by 2.1 to 3 percent in the next year. These expected growth rates are more optimistic than the Fed's, which predict only 2.3 percent growth. But despite the optimism, only 37 percent of the survey respondents said they expected to hire more people over the next six months. This means that the growing job market and increased job opportunities seen in late 2013 may not carry over into 2014.
The final quarter of 2013 brought some fairly strong economic indicators, partially due to November marking the biggest increase in job opportunities since March 2008. Despite a few potentially ominous underlying factors affecting the numbers, this was good news overall. Whether the statistics translate to good economic numbers in 2014, however, remains to be seen.
(Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net)
Become a member to take advantage of more features, like commenting and voting.
Register or sign in today!