263,000 U.S. jobs were added in the month of November and the unemployment rate stayed at 3.7 percent, according to the Labor Department’s monthly report. One business professor at the George Washington University says the recent data shows a continued optimism that we’re going to enter 2023 with a strong economy.
If you’re looking for more context on the matter, please consider Christopher Kayes, a professor of management and the chair of the management department at the GW School of Business. He is an expert on leadership, resilience, teams, and workplace well-being.
“Labor reports seem to be exceeding expectations. Now, there are certain sectors that may be struggling a little bit more than others but across the board, we’re seeing a strong labor market and we’re seeing numbers in the direction that we want to see them,” Kayes says. “Inflation seems to be going down. We’re seeing strong employment. Prices at the gas pump are leveling out or going down, so a lot of the things we’re looking for in a strong economy are what we’re starting to see.”
Kayes says what stands out most to him in this month’s jobs report is wage growth across industries and across different careers and job types.
“What this says is this is still a job market driven by labor. Employees still have the upper hand. There are still not enough workers to meet the demands of most employers. Now this seems to be really sector-specific – we’re still seeing a lot of hiring in healthcare, in education, in leisure and hospitality, but surprisingly we’re also seeing hiring continuing in the tech industry, despite the headlines that have shown a lot of layoffs,” Kayes adds.
“Across the economy, we’re still seeing a very strong labor market. Why is this? I think this is because what we’re seeing is a real flattening out of the number of participants in the labor force. So not only are fewer people in each group looking for work, we’re also seeing a flattening out of the total number of workers seeking jobs.”
If you would like to speak with Professor Kayes, please contact GW Media Relations Specialist Cate Douglass at [email protected].
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