Job growth in the U.S. appears to be cooling, but many economists say the slowdown represents more of a normalization to a pre-pandemic pace of hiring than a sign that a full-blown recession is imminent. Earlier this week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the ratio of unemployed workers to job openings had climbed back to the level seen just before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Further insight comes from a data series created by Vanguard financial services group, which shows hiring for middle- and high-income workers having slowed to a crawl, while lower-income workers continue to be hired at a healthy clip. 'We’re certainly seeing, within firms, that the hire rate among more costly or higher-paid workers has been going down,' said Fiona Grieg, global head of investor research and policy at Vanguard, in an interview.