US job openings are now at recession levels:
US job openings dropped -386,000 in December, to 6.5 million, the lowest since September 2020.
Over the last 2 months, job openings have declined -907,000, the biggest 2-month drop since March 2023.
The number of available vacancies has plummeted -5.6 million since the March 2022 peak.
This is now below levels seen before the pandemic in 2018 and 2019, at ~7.0 million.
As a result, the ratio of available vacancies to unemployed workers is down to 0.87, the lowest since February 2021, and significantly below the pre-pandemic high of 1.24.
This is also below the levels recorded during the 2001 recession.
US job market weakness is accelerating.
I'd like to pay my respects to @Fame21Moore who we lost yesterday.
I spoke with Darren many times over the last couple of years about XRP, crypto, and life in general. He was the ultimate gentleman and scholar.
What exemplifies Darren more than anything, I think, is when his crypto got hacked a couple months ago and he lost almost everything; his first instinct was to post about how it happened so that no one else would make the same mistake. That was his nature.
Darren had great enthusiasm for privacy and liberty. He educated people, including me, about privacy, defi, and above all, Liberty. He never wavered from those ideals for a quick buck (and he had many opportunities).
He brought a lot of people into this space with his well-researched videos and commentary. The XRP and crypto community really lost a good one yesterday. RIP Darren Moore, and thank you sir.