Discussion Paper

The State of Hiring in the Fifth District

Abstract: The past two years have been marked by a historically tight labor market in which many firms have had difficulty hiring and retaining workers who possess the necessary skill sets. In a recent post, we explored evidence from our business surveys that suggests that the labor market may be cooling somewhat. Our employment and availability of skills indexes have returned to pre-pandemic levels, and our estimates of wage growth have come down from their 2022 peak. Nonetheless, wage growth estimates remain above pre-pandemic levels, and data from our August surveys suggests that many firms are still having trouble hiring and retaining workers with the desired skills. This is especially true among manufacturing firms, which continue to have a harder time hiring workers with the necessary skill sets than their service-sector counterparts.

Keywords: labor market; 5th district;

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

Part of Series: Regional Matters

Publication Date: 2023-08-22