Weekly hours worked — an early indicator of changes in hiring patterns as well as demand — has reached a key inflection point. Businesses, especially those that have struggled to hire and retain workers, typically seek out a number of different ways to handle softening economic conditions before laying off workers en masse. That includes scrapping job postings, hiring less, cutting temporary help and reducing hours. Average weekly hours have fallen in three of the last four months, dropping to the bottom of the 34.3-34.6 hours range Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, views as the “happy, healthy range for ... (full story)