Bloomberg (09/30/12) Shobhana Chandra; Steve Matthews

Weakening demand for a variety of goods and services is contributing to the already weak U.S. labor market. Finance chiefs are either limiting hiring or cutting more jobs than originally projected. This belt-tightening is likely to influence the labor market for the rest of the year.

“These cost controls are one of the key reasons job growth remains relatively weak,” says Charles Lieberman, chief investment officer at Advisors Capital Management LLC and former head of monetary analysis at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Companies will avoid hiring until orders have strengthened and “they cannot meet demand with their existing work force.”