Employment: Normalizing Or Stalling?

The labor market is weakening, but the bulls prefer to say it is “normalizing.” While the latest tally of 7.7 million job openings is impressive, the last two-years’ decline seems too steep and too persistent to be called “normalization.” The slowdown also leaves the payroll-employment growth rate perilously close to the 1.4% economic stall speed seen at the outset of all but one previous recession.