The National Labor Picture at a Glance.

The labor market is thriving despite the Federal Reserve's attempts to cool the economy and contain inflation by raising interest rates, according to economists, who also note that unemployment remains extremely low by historical standards. The Federal Reserve forecasts the unemployment rate will increase from its current level of 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent this year, which would necessitate the loss of more than 540,000 jobs.

Nationally speaking, job openings are shrinking, layoffs are rising, and hiring activity is losing momentum. All of this however is occurring slower than the Fed would like.

Job creation slowed in March.

In line with estimates, American businesses created 236,000 new positions in March, and the unemployment rate decreased to 3.5 percent according to the most recent employment report released today from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The report also states that firms are beginning to reduce hiring following two months of significant employment growth. The majority of the newly created positions were in the fields of hospitality and leisure, professional business services, and health care.

How about Florida? And, what about Miami?

Because we are Florida based, clients always inquire: “How are we doing here locally?” Lately, our answer has been very straightforward. Florida is doing better than the nation, and South Florida's labor market, in particular, is rocking and rolling as if it had never even heard the name Jerome Powell. Our economy so far has shown incredible resilience to the interest rate hikes imposed by the Federal Reserve.

As you can see in this chart below from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the latest available February 2023 data show that, while the national unemployment rate currently stands at 3.5%, Florida's is a measly 2.6%. Drilling down further into the data, you see that South Florida's unemployment rate as of February 2023 stands at a paltry 2.2%.

The super low unemployment figure of 2.2% for South Florida is a sign of a strong and resilient regional economy that has recovered from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and Hurricane Ian. However, it poses some very real challenges for employers looking for talent, as they face a tight labor market with fewer available workers who have higher wage expectations. Employers may need to adopt more flexible and creative strategies to attract and retain qualified employees, such as offering remote or hybrid (part on-site/ part-remote) work options, enhancing benefits and incentives, expanding training and development opportunities, and partnering with local educational institutions and workforce agencies. Many of these options for improving the attractiveness of job roles available at their firms, however, will increase labor costs to employers offering them.

Additionally, employers may need to diversify their recruitment sources and methods, by reaching out to underrepresented groups, such as veterans, people with disabilities, legal immigrants, older or semi-retired workers, and ex-offenders. These pools of available talent hold many potential employees with untapped skills and potential. By not overlooking these often overlooked groups, employers can not only fill their talent gaps, but also reap the additional rewards of enhancing their social responsibility and reputations in the community.