When Brian Daniel, the founder of a Los Angeles-based staffing agency, recently posted what he describes as a “high-paying remote job,” he saw firsthand just how tough the labor market had become for job seekers.

“We get between 500 and 1,000 applicants for every open position,” he says. But this job—an executive assistant position that pays $150 per hour—seemed particularly appealing. Within a few days, more than 2,000 people had applied. “The ‘low-hire, low-fire’ labor market is nothing to scoff at,” Daniel says.

Daniel is referring to the unusual state of the current labor market described by then-Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at a press conference in April: “[This] doesn’t feel like a good labor market to some who don’t have jobs because quits are really low, hires are really low,” Powell said. “It’s an unusual and uncomfortable kind of a balance where people who don’t have jobs will have a hard time breaking in.”

In the months since Powell made that assessment, the picture has remained bleak for those looking for work.

U.S.-based employers announced 43,281 job cuts in September, down 18% from August and the lowest monthly total since 2022, according to a report from the executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas that was released last week. 

But the corresponding uptick in hiring that job seekers are hoping for has not materialized. Employers announced plans to hire 90,787 workers in September, 23% fewer than a year earlier and the lowest September total since 2011.

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