Key Takeaways:

  • Job listings are still higher than pre-pandemic levels.
  • Greenwich.HR’s data predicts a drastic drop in the number of job listings for April 2022.
  • The stock market, inflation, lack of hours, and employer hiring practices could be the cause.

The labor market has continued to shift drastically in the last year amid the ending pandemic. Job listings have skyrocketed, unemployment rates are plummeting, and the workforce will feel the lasting impact of this shift for decades to come. It is apparent that the labor market has continued to change for the better in the last year, but will this trend continue to steadily rise or drastically fall?

According to the U.S. Labor Department’s job report for March 2022, employers added 431,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 3.6%. Although job openings still remained near record levels, the gains in March were the smallest of the last six months. 

This trend may continue as Greenwich.HR’s labor market data projects that the number of job listings will likely continue to decrease with nearly a -47% change for the month of April. If this prediction is correct, this will be the largest fall in added jobs since April of 2020.

So, what could be causing this predicted trend? There are a number of theories buzzing around, but the likely few are: the sliding stock market, inflation, workers struggling to find hours, and lack of accurate updating of job listings from employers when a position has been filled. 
Will our insights hold true to this month’s Jobs Report? Interested to know how your company can gain valuable key insights of the labor market? Learn more about our compensation and labor insights today, and stay tuned for our post-jobs report!