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On September 18, the Federal Reserve cut the federal funds rate by 0.5 percent, from a range of 5.25 – 5.5 percent down to 4.75 – 5.0 percent.
That was big news. The rates prior to the cut were at their highest level in 23 years, and the half-percent cut was larger than many pundits had expected. The signal from the Fed was clear: now that inflation is more or less under control, they’re on a mission to stabilize the rest of the economy.
A chief concern for many analysts is the job market and unemployment. After a lackluster jobs report from the BLS in September, some parties speculated that, in an effort to curb inflation, the Fed’s high interest rates were hurting the labor market: when capital is expensive, it’s harder for employers to hire, which means fewer job listings, which can stagnate growth.
So did the rate cut work? Did employers start hiring after the Fed’s announcement? To answer that question, we turned to JobsIndex.
The Data: Job Listings Follow Established Trends
We looked at data for three weeks: the week before the rate cut, the week of the rate cut, and the week after the rate cut.
Here’s
