Outlook for Job Seekers Seen at Record Low, NY Fed Says

The outlook for job seekers has taken a sharp turn for the worse, according to respondents to a monthly survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

For those who lose a job now, the prospects of finding new employment within three months dropped by almost 6 percentage points in August to the lowest reading since the New York Fed began asking the question in 2013. That’s also the sharpest downturn in one month since the pandemic.

The results, released Monday, follow another weak employment report showing firms added just 22,000 net new positions in August. Revisions also revealed ...