Just how balanced is the job market. Some corporate workers get a raise, plus the view on Trump's

trade war from a Kansas farm. From American public media, this is Marketplace. In Denver, I'm Amy Scott in for Kai Rizdahl. It's Thursday, September 18th. Good to have you with us. A day after the Fed cut interest rates, citing some weakening in the job market, the Labor Department put out its weekly snapshot of unemployment claims.

The number of people filing first-time claims fell last week to 231,000, roughly in line with the recent average.

That's after the jobs report a couple weeks ago found that the number of people hired in August,

and the number who were let go or quit that month were about equal, which means employers aren't rushing to lay

people off, but they're not rushing to hire either. Marketplaces Sabree Beneshore has more on

what Fed Chair Jerome Powell has called a curious balance in the job market.

Employers over the last few months, generally speaking, have become less and less thrilled with the

idea of hiring new people. We've seen a lot of that, low hire, much less demand for newer

workers and job postings.

Corey Staley is a senior economist indeed.

Lots of reasons for this, a couple years of higher interest rates, general slowdown in the economy.

But employers are also not firing a ton of people.

They're just doing neither.

Employers are kind of acting like deer in the headlights right now.

Aaron Sojourner is a senior economist with the Upjohn Institute.

They're blinded a bit.

They're uncertain what's coming at them.

There have been big swings in economic policy.

And so they're really just scared to make a move.

Now, usually, if businesses don't want to hire as much,

you get more people out of work, looking for jobs.

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