Did you know the video game industry is worth more than $300 billion dollars a year, bigger than movies and music combined?

Marketplace Morning Reports' Skin in the Game series explores what this booming industry can teach us about the economy and jobs.

Listen to Skin in the Game and more from Marketplace Morning Report, wherever you get your podcasts.

On the program today, the labor market, the freight market, and the climate market.

From American public media, this is Marketplace.

In Los Angeles, I'm Kai.

Rizdole is Tuesday.

Today, the very first day of August could as always to have you along, everybody.

The economic book ends of this week will be jobs, and then it'll be jobs.

The unemployment report for the month of July will arrive bright and early Friday morning.

Today, it was jolt.

The job, opening, and labor turnover survey, and while nuanced, there are some indications therein that the all-important labor market might, within emphasis here on might, be slowing.

Companies are hiring just a bit more slowly than they have been, and people are leaving their jobs at a slow rate too.

Could be music to the Federal Reserve's ears, or it could be more of a cacophony.

Marketplace's Stephanie Hughes elaborates on that metaphor.

The anthem of the labor market right now, according to Morgan Stanley economist Sarah Wolf, is a journey song from the late 70s.

You know, like the wheel in the sky keeps on turning.

I mean, I just metaphorically it's like our economy, continuing to push forward.

Wolf says that wheel has lost some momentum, but she says today's jolt state of shows that even with an economic slowdown, employers are opting to hire fewer workers instead of laying them off.

This comes after two years of them, not being able to hire.

We're flexing this kind of outlook of, you know, I'd rather like hoard my workers, then get rid of them.

Wolf says this is consistent with the soft landing, where the Fed brings down inflation and avoids a recession.

...