ECU economics professor weighs in on waning job growth

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – Job growth in May in the U.S. paled in comparison to April.

In April, 436,000 new jobs were added. In May, that number was closer to 390,000.

WITN talked to economics experts and hiring managers to get their thoughts on those numbers.

Job openings in our area aren’t hard to find. Nearly everywhere you turn, a business has a “hiring” sign in the window.

“We’re just having a job fair today to fill some of our nursing positions,” Calvin Arrington, Jr., Universal Healthcare Greenville executive director said.

WITN stopped by the job fair at Universal Healthcare in Greenville. They’re adding new efforts to generate interest.

“We’re just trying something new with the job fair, trying to reach out into the community a little bit more,” Arrington said.

He said things have been a bit more difficult lately in terms of filling positions.

“It is a little challenging, but we’ve been able to meet that need so far. We’re trying to make it a little bit better, do a little bit more.”

Haiyong Liu, East Carolina University economics professor, noticed the drop in job growth from April to May, but does not feel that the decrease is something to be concerned about.

“We could say it’s kind of stabilized, which makes sense because nothing can go up forever,” Liu said. “Especially because we only have a fixed number of potential workers.”

The biggest challenge workers are facing in his mind is inflation.

As far as job growth, Liu says too much of it could backfire.

“We don’t want an economy that’s so hot that we have positions that always remain unfilled,” Liu said.

The professor feels that we’re at a healthy place right now job-wise. “New positions, new openings are still pretty strong.”

Some people are concerned about lower job growth impacting the economy.

Right now, Liu says he doesn’t think what he calls a stabilized job growth to be an indicator of a recession on its own. The national unemployment rate stayed about the same in May as April.