It's taking longer to get hired

Despite an overall strong labor market and a plentiful number of job openings, it's taking longer for unemployed workers to land on their feet. With a recent swell of layoffs across multiple industries and hiring slowing down due to an uncertain economic forecast, the length of time that job seekers are out of work has grown significantly. According to the Department of Labor, 826,000 unemployed workers were out of work for 3½ to 6 months in December, up 36% from April of 2022.