Introduction
Welcome to Recruiting Realities, where we’re always digging into the latest trends and insights in recruitment. In this episode, we’re unpacking the November 2024 US jobs report. Get ready as we break down the significant jump in job additions, the slight tick up in unemployment, and some fascinating client data that reveals shifts in hiring efficiency and applicant volume.
Yazad Dalal: Hi everyone. I’m Yazad Dalal, Chief Growth Officer here at Joveo and welcome to Recruiting Realities, where we bring to you the latest developments and insights in recruitment. Today, we’re speaking again with our in-house labor market economist, David Garrett, about the US jobs report for November 2024. Hello, David.
David Garrett: Hey, how’s it going?
Yazad Dalal: I am awesome. And for our listeners, at Joveo, we publish Interactive Insights across all major occupations in the US. You can check that out on our website.
joveo.com/interactive-insights
So David, the most recent US jobs report came out for the month of November. The US labor market added an estimated 227,000 jobs. That’s a big change from 12,000 jobs added in the report back in October. And unemployment has ticked up slightly to 4.2%. I think what the data was showing was employment is up in healthcare, 54,000 new jobs, government, 33,000 new jobs, leisure and hospitality with 53,000, then transportation, manufacturing. The Boeing strike is over, so a lot of those workers came back to work in early November. Interestingly, since it’s December, I can also share what we’re seeing in our own Joveo data across our clients. Most interesting thing is that our clients posted nearly 14 times more jobs with us this year than in 2023.
Fourteen times more. And my favorite thing about this data is that the duration of the jobs that we ran for them is down 30%, meaning the amount of time that we left those jobs posted is down by a third. But the volume of applicants for each job, the number of people who applied is up 48%. So jobs have to stay up for less time, spend less money, but the number of people who applied is up by half.
What that basically just means is our AI platform is becoming more and more efficient with how and where we post our clients’ jobs. So, that’s an interesting tidbit for our audience. But David, I have lots of questions about the job report. So let’s get started. What were some of your key takeaways?
David Garrett: Yeah, I mean so I would say this report was kind of one for the nerds. The one you have to pay more attention to the details in. And you know, I think for starters also like in the report there was, we saw that there was not as large of an increase in retail as you would normally see, particularly around this time, you know, with Black Friday, and was like the largest Black Friday. I think it was something close to like, God, it was like one point something billion dollars, I recall. Like definitely higher than previous years. Cyber Monday was crazy as well. But a lot of employers, since it was on the 29th of November, as opposed to, I think, the 23rd last year, a lot of us think that it’s likely that employers held off until closer to the end of the month. So we’ll probably see a very large increase in retail next month. But the rest of it is very return to form in terms of apply numbers, like you said, with 12,000 in October. But yeah, so I really think in this one, you have to look more into the details for it to find the more subtle changes in the labor market.
Yazad Dalal: Yeah, so it’s a real devil’s in the details kind of report, I guess.
David Garrett: Yeah, exactly. A lot of, you know, if you’re looking at more long-term trends and compare numbers of last year, you really get a more full picture. You know, in particular on like the unemployment rate, the people who’ve been unemployed for 15 weeks or more has gone up by about 20% since this time last year. And this group also is about 40% of the total number of unemployed, with I think more than half of that group having been unemployed for more than 27 weeks.
Yazad Dalal: That’s very tough.
David Garrett: Yeah, it is. A lot more people are experiencing unemployment for a longer duration. And you know, a lot of it is still within this business and tech sector. So for those hiring in that realm, you’re probably seeing a lot of this.
Yazad Dalal: Professional services, technology.
David Garrett: Exactly, yeah.You know, there’s a lot of like in 2020-2022, there’s a lot of over-hiring, you know, there’s a lot of hype around remote work and the national workforce, AI and ML advancements. But, you know, because interest rates have remained high, as we’ve kind of talked about, a lot of investors are being more choosy about where they’re putting their money. So a lot of companies are seeing much, you know, becoming much slower when it comes to making hiring decisions, in addition to, you know, as you mentioned, like receiving a significant number more applicants than in previous years, which also corresponds with what I’ve seen whenever I check through some of the data of our clients.
Yazad Dalal: Well, I hope a lot of that changes. I think we saw that there’s a projected rate cut coming in Q4. So hopefully that starts to change the picture around investment, which leads to then more employment opportunities for a lot of those folks who unfortunately have had to give up. So, interesting report, exciting year overall with the highs and lows. So thank you, David, and thank you to our listeners. Don’t forget to visit us at Joveo.com and we’ll talk to you again soon.
David Garrett: Yeah, thanks for having me.
Conclusion
This episode wrapped up by highlighting that the November jobs report, while seemingly straightforward, holds crucial details for understanding the current labor market. We saw a positive shift in job additions and discussed how longer unemployment durations, particularly in tech and professional services, might improve with projected interest rate cuts. If you’re interested in more, check out the reports here!
