businesses have record job openings but it’s hasn’t been easy to hire because of a shrinking pool of available workers and an unprecedented number of people quitting still the us likely added another big clump of new jobs in april here’s what to watch in the employment report on friday morning the number of new jobs the us created in april likely decelerated to 400000 according to a poll of economists by the wall street journal by comparison the economy gained an average of 561000 jobs in the first three months of 2022 still a hiring gain that matches wall street’s forecast would leave the us just 12 million jobs below its precoronavirus peak of 1525 million the economy is on track to soon recover all 22 million jobs lost in the first month of the pandemic based on a survey of business establishments but hiring is all but certain to slow a pair of ism surveys for example indicated that it’s gotten even harder for businesses to find and retain employees “job growth remains solid in the spring of 2022 although the tight labor market is making it more and more difficult for businesses to find workers” said chief economist gus faucher of pnc financial services wall street djia spx expects the us unemployment rate to fall another tick to 35 from 36 and match the prepandemic low in 2020 two years ago the jobless rate slid to the lowest level since 1968 if unemployment falls below 34 it would mark the smallest rate since 1953 one caveat the low unemployment rate stems in part from fewer people being in the labor force compared to a few years ago retirements soared early in the pandemic and some younger workers haven’t returned especially women with children the tightest labor market in decades is great news for workers and a headache for businesses the federal reserve has a different worry that rising wages might add to the highest us inflation in 40 years the central bank plans to raise interest rates sharply to curb inflation potentially slowing the economy and hiring too good or bad the april employment report won’t change the fed’s calculus millions of workers who left the labor force early in the crisis are gradually returning but not fast enough to ease the labor crunch or the upward spiral in wages high inflation could force more people to look for work economists say so too could the recent decline in the stock market or the ebbing pandemic the share of the workingage population in the labor force rose in march to a pandemic peak of 624 but it’s still a full point below the precovid high that’s the equivalent of 16 million missing workers employees are enjoying the biggest wage gains in four decades especially job hoppers taking advantage of the tight labor market average pay has shot up 56 over the past year to 3173 an hour economists forecast another sizable 04 increase in wages in april the problem is wages aren’t keeping up with inflation the cost of living has jumped almost 85 in the past year leaving most workers worse off and now the worry is that higher wages will also feed the fires of inflation