The labor market continues to be very strong, but the real economy appears to be faltering. How might gross domestic product (GDP) fall in the first half of 2022 while the economy created 2.7 million jobs in the same time period? Is the labor market not as strong as it appears or is the economy doing better than the data suggests?
To assess the strength of the labor market, there are numerous indicators of its health, and sometimes they point in different directions. Today isn’t one of those times. Based on every major labor market indicator, the labor market is very strong and, in historical terms, very tight.