The labor market’s next chapter is taking shape. Here’s what to watch for in Friday’s jobs report | CNN Business

The labor market may be rousing from its slumber. Economists are expecting that Friday’s jobs report will show that the US economy added 105,000 jobs in May and the unemployment rate held steady at 4.3%. If Friday’s monthly total comes in as expected – and the prior months’ figures aren’t revised starkly lower – it would mark three consecutive months of 100,000-plus jobs added. That kind of hat trick hasn’t been accomplished since the first three months of 2024. While one month does not make a trend, three sure seem like a start: Job gains upward of 100,000 could indicate that the labor market is stabilizing. However, it’s also not that simple: The labor market is in the throes of a complex evolution, with many different moving parts. At play are structural changes, a generational technology movement, and a slew of external variables, to name a few. “It’s just in this place where we’re really resetting a new normal, what normal is going to look like, and what a ‘good jobs report’ will look like moving forward, which is different than it was pre-pandemic and from historical trends,” said Nicole Bachaud, a labor economist at employment site ZipRecruiter. I