US job market hits milestone on long, strange trip back to pre-pandemic normal
REUTERS
5/6/2024 9:23
The U.S. job market in April cleared a key hurdle in its slow return from the COVID-19 pandemic when a wonky economic chart known as the "Beveridge Curve" finished its own journey from where it had shifted during the health crisis back to where it was in 2018 to 2019.
The Beveridge Curve plots the relationship between job openings and the unemployment rate, and data released on Tuesday further validates an idea floated by Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller in mid-2022 that, counter to the idea that inflation could only fall with a large rise in the unemployment rate, the pandemic's elevated level of job openings pointed to an alternate path.
A drop in job openings could create the economic "slack" needed for inflation to fall without much change in actual joblessness - returning the Beveridge Curve to where it was.
As of April, that appears to be what has happened.
The story isn't completely written: Inflation, which was running at 2.7% in April based on the Fed's preferred measure, is not back to the U.S. central bank's 2% target, and recent progress has been sluggish.
3287.99
1275.09