US Job Postings Slip 2.2% in May as Unemployment Holds at 4.3%
Updated
Updated · Indeed Hiring Lab · Jun 18
US Job Postings Slip 2.2% in May as Unemployment Holds at 4.3%
3 articles · Updated · Indeed Hiring Lab · Jun 18
Summary
Indeed’s job posting index fell 2.2% in May to 100.4, leaving postings just 0.4% above the pre-pandemic baseline and erasing early-year momentum in labor demand.
That cooling comes despite a solid May payrolls report: unemployment held at 4.3%, but the market remains low-hire and low-fire, with quits stuck at 1.9% and hires near early-2010s recovery levels.
Posted wage growth stayed at 2.4% year over year, with lower-wage occupations again leading at 2.7% as employers show more pay pressure at the bottom of the market.
Inflation at 4.2% in May — the highest in more than three years — has pushed real wage growth negative, driven in part by gas prices up 40% from a year earlier and dimming prospects for Fed rate cuts.