Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times
- April's dismal job growth is similar to the commodity shortages plaguing US businesses, JPMorgan said.
- Average wages swung higher in April as firms raised pay to attract workers.
- That increase is "consistent with constraints" in hiring and mirrors rising prices for key materials, the bank said.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Commodity shortages and hiring woes are more similar than they first appear, according to JPMorgan economists.
A handful of obstacles stand in the way of what is otherwise a promising US economic recovery. Supply-chain disruptions and a slew of factory backlogs gummed up the country's manufacturing sector as demand strongly rebounded in April. Prices for everything from lumber and gasoline to toilet paper and palm oil have shot higher as a result.
Businesses' need for workers similarly rebounded as firms look to service outsize consumer demand, but the US added only 266,000 jobs in April, a sharp deceleration from the job growth seen in March and a big miss of the 1 million-payroll estimate. Yet average hourly earnings surged through the month and the average workweek grew longer as businesses converted part-time employees to full-time work.
These developments are "consistent with constraints" in the labor market, rather than a lack of demand for workers, JPMorgan said.
"We had anticipated bottleneck pressures this year, but signs of similar constraints in US labor markets is a surprise," the team led by Bruce Kasman said in a note to clients.
Economic data published Tuesday morning supports such claims. The country ended March with a record 8.1 million job openings, according to the monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. The hiring rate climbed slightly, and about 1.2 Americans competed for every job opening. Although April JOLTS won't be released for another month, the March figures suggest businesses were ramping up hiring efforts as the economy continued to reopen.
The rising commodity prices also point to another pressure plaguing the labor market. Experts including Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggested before the report that a jump in average wages would be indicative of a worker shortage. If wages need to climb to accelerate hiring, the combination of higher labor and materials costs could further boost inflation and create new economic worries.
JPMorgan, for now, sees such bottlenecks fading as the recovery charges on. Sustained policy support and strong economic growth should drive more Americans into the workforce. This should, in turn, alleviate some manufacturing pressures and help producers address their massive order backlogs.
The bank isn't alone in its optimism. The expiration of bolstered unemployment benefits and the start of the school year will push more Americans to job openings, Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said Sunday.
The creation of new businesses can also offset permanent job losses. While April job data was hugely disappointing, it still seems as though the labor market will emerge without the long-term scarring many feared, Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said Wednesday.
"People seem to be eager to go back to work. Not enough to make companies that don't want to pay higher wages happy. But this whole thing is really looking like a V-shape recovery," he told Insider.