Labor Market | Weekly Excerpt January 23rd

The labor market is a concept that refers to the supply of available jobs (in companies) and the demand for those jobs (the skilled people who are unemployed) and its health metrics are imperative for a good understanding of the direction of the economy and decisions on monetary and fiscal policies.

In an era of inflation and high interest rates one has to take good care of one's job. Data earlier this month showed that price growth in the Eurozone slowed in December to an annual rate of 9.2%. However, the core inflation figure, which excludes volatile items such as food and energy, rose to a new high of 5.2%.

In addition, we are seeing a lot of news where companies are letting their workers go. One might conclude that there is going to be an increase in unemployment claims, but the reality is different.

Applications in the United States

"Applications for state unemployment benefits fell by 15,000 to a total of 190,000 claims if seasonally adjusted for the week ended Jan. 14."The U.S. government said Thursday.

Part of the surprise drop in applications likely reflected ongoing challenges in adjusting the data for seasonal fluctuations earlier in the year.