“While most US official economic data releases have been suspended until recently due to the government shutdown, Goldman Sachs Research’s analysis of alternative measures of US job layoffs suggests the labor market is weakening further. A sustained increase in layoffs would be particularly concerning because the hiring rate for workers is low and it is harder than usual for the unemployed to find jobs. Private-sector layoff announcements reported by Challenger, Gray & Christmas increased in October to their highest level outside of recession (even after excluding the effect of an announcement of warehouse layoffs that our economists suspect is being partially double-counted). Outside of the large spike in layoffs involving warehousing jobs, the tech, industrial goods, and food sectors accounted for the largest increases in layoff announcements in October.”
Morten W. Langer
