The U.S. job market is flashing red, with multiple indicators falling to their lowest levels since the 2020 pandemic.

ME News report, April 3 (UTC+8). According to The Kobeissi Letter, U.S. government job vacancies for February fell to 701,000, the second-lowest level since December 2020, down by 524,000 from the 2022 peak. Federal government vacancies were down to only 89,000, and the hiring rate fell to 1.4%, matching the lows of 2016 to 2017. Private sector companies also carried out large-scale layoffs at the same time: Oracle, according to reports, cut as many as 30,000 jobs; Amazon reduced 16,000 positions; and Block laid off more than 4,000 people. In terms of consumer confidence, the share of people who believe jobs are plentiful was only 27.3%, far below about 55% in 2022. The labor market disparity indicator fell to 5.8 percentage points, the lowest since the pandemic. Kobeissi noted that this indicator has historically been a reliable leading signal of rising unemployment, and that the current level is seen only around recessions. (Source: ChainCatcher)