NPR

This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Waylon Wong.

And I'm Patty Hirsch. Today is Jobs Friday. And the news from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

is not bad. The U.S. economy created 150,000 jobs last month, which isn't too shabby, and I think

definitely merits a toot on the old horn.

That number is not as good as some people were hoping for though.

The forecast was for around 170 to 180,000 jobs.

And the unemployment rate is ticking up a bit. The BLS says it's now up to

3.9 percent. That's the highest since January of 2020.

The job market though is still pretty tight.

There are still lots of open jobs out there and companies are still creating jobs.

And there appear to be more open positions than there are workers to fill them.

In this kind of market, the balance of power between workers and employers is

usually tilted in the workers' favor.

We say usually because something unusual is happening in the labor market right now.

Yes, there's lots of jobs open, which means workers can be picky, but employers are being

picky too.

They're advertising jobs, but in a lot of cases, they don't seem to be in a big hurry to fill them.

So on today's show we'll look at this unusual wrinkle in the labor market

and what it means for workers and employers and for the economy as a whole. That's coming up after the break.

If I say the word tight to describe something, it might conjure the impression of something being squeezed.

And when it comes to the labor market being tight, the people usually being squeezed are

...