When describing the health of the US economy, there is a temptation among economists, market analysts, and politicians to argue that the only true picture of our current situation is a sweeping portrait - only by looking at the broadest of aggregate statistics can you determine the state of play, they argue. But the wide view can ignore important developments unfolding under the surface. Sometimes, even the healthiest-looking person might have high cholesterol.
Zoom out: The economy, in a lot of ways, is just fine. Growth is robust, inflation is a fraction of what it was not that long ago, and the labor market is, for now, in a (tenuous) equilibrium. Yes, but: The vibes are awful and getting worse. The thing that doomed Democrats in 2024 hasn't gotten particularly better since. Corporate layoffs are at a 22-year high.
Economists, journalists, and investors won't be waiting by their laptops this morning for a new jobs report. It's the second month without this data release. The agency isn't releasing most reports or collecting data during the government shutdown, which is the longest one in US history. However, job seekers, economists, and anyone else missing the BLS reports can turn to recent publications from ADP, Indeed, Bank of America, and others to get a sense of how the job market and broader economy are doing.
in 2025, the tech industry had the highest recorded number of layoffs for the month of October: 33,281 compared with 5,639 in September. Tech companies have announced 141,159 job cuts this year compared with 120,470 during the same period in 2024. Total year-to-date job cuts in the U.S. are at their highest level since the pandemic struck in 2020, and t he firm says that layoffs for the month of October haven't been this high since 2003
The number of U.S. homes that typically change hands as people relocate for work, retire or trade-up for more living space hasn't been this low in nearly 30 years. About 28 out of every 1,000 homes changed hands between January and September, the lowest U.S. home turnover rate going back to at least the 1990s, according to an analysis by Redfin.
The challenging U.S. labor market is entering a new normal, according to Goldman Sachs economists David Mericle and Pierfrancesco Mei, who tackled the phenomenon of "jobless growth" in an October 13 note. It resonates with what Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell memorably described in September as a " low-hire, low-fire " labor market and the fact that, for some reason, "kids coming out of college and younger people, minorities, are having a hard time finding jobs."
The "low-hire, low-fire" US labor market is leaving millions on the outside looking in. It's not just recent college graduates who are struggling to find entry-level positions. Out-of-work mid-career employees are taking part-time jobs, and hiring has stalled in industries from professional services to manufacturing. More than a quarter of the jobless have been out of work more than a half-year - the highest share since the mid-2010s excluding the pandemic-era years.
