Where the jobs are: Strong hiring in most industries has far outpaced high-profile layoffs

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Blockbuster job growth in the past several months has coincided with high-profile layoff announcements by a number of large companies. So, how are both occurring at the same time? It’s not as contradictory as it might seem. Recent job cuts have been concentrated mainly in just a few sectors: technology, finance and media. Relative to the U.S. labor force of 160 million people, layoffs so far have been dwarfed by consistently vigorous hiring — a monthly average of 248,000 jobs added over the past six months. The unemployment rate is still just 3.7%, barely above a 50-year low. It turns out that many of the companies that are now shedding jobs had over-hired during the pandemic.