St. Louis
at the margin.

## Labor Market Conditions — St. Louis

The St. Louis labor market is in equilibrium, holding steady after a long post-pandemic expansion. Employment is essentially flat over the past year — down just a fraction of a percent — while the unemployment rate has edged up roughly 6% compared to a year ago, a modest but real shift in the balance between workers and open positions. Neither number signals a crisis, but taken together they indicate that the slack that was largely absent from this market two years ago is quietly returning.

The primary driver appears to be cooling demand rather than any structural disruption. Payroll momentum is holding steady rather than declining sharply, which suggests employers are trimming headcount through attrition and slower hiring rather than outright cuts. The unemployment uptick reflects that dynamic — more workers are between jobs for slightly longer, but the overall jobless level remains within a healthy historical range for the region.