Americans are increasingly worried about losing their jobs, a new survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released on Monday showed, a worrying sign at a moment when economists and central bankers are warily monitoring for cracks in the job market.

The New York Fed’s July survey of labor market expectations showed that the expected likelihood of becoming unemployed rose to 4.4 percent on average, up from 3.9 percent a year earlier and the highest in data going back to 2014.

In fact, the new data showed signs of the labor market cracking across a range of metrics. People reported leaving or losing jobs, marked down their salary expectations and increasingly thought that they would need to work past traditional retirement ages. The share of workers who reported searching for a job in the past four weeks jumped to 28.4 percent — the highest level since the data started — up from 19.4 percent in July 2023.

The survey, which quizzes a nationally representative sample of people on their recent economic experience, suggested that meaningful fissures may be forming in the labor market. While it is just one report, it comes at a tense moment, as economists and central bankers watch nervously for signs that the job market is taking a turn for the worse.

The unemployment rate has moved up notably over the past year, climbing to 4.3 percent in July. That has put many economy watchers on edge. The jobless rate rarely moves up as sharply as is has recently outside of an economic recession.

But the slowdown in the labor market has not been widely backed up by other data. Jobless claims have moved up but remain relatively low. Consumer spending remains robust, with both overall retail sales data and company earnings reports suggesting that shoppers continue to open their wallets.

Still, it is often the case that the labor market is relatively early to slow when the economy is at a turning point; economic growth data cool later. In the 2008 recession, for instance, unemployment had been rising for months before retail sales began to take a turn for the worse.

That has left Fed officials closely watching incoming job market data for any sign that conditions are deteriorating. Officials will receive payroll revisions data on Wednesday, and economists think that those figures could show that job growth in 2023 and early 2024 was weaker than previously reported. They will also receive August hiring numbers on Sept. 6, the final report before their Sept. 17-18 interest rate decision.

Fed policymakers are widely expected to begin cutting interest rates at that meeting. They have held borrowing costs at 5.3 percent for the past year to fight against rapid inflation. But with price increases slowing and the job market looking increasingly wobbly, officials have been preparing to pivot away from that tough stance. High interest rates cool the economy by discouraging people from borrowing money, which weighs on demand.

Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, is scheduled to speak at the Kansas City Fed’s closely watched annual economic conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo., this Friday. Mr. Powell could give an up-to-date sense of how officials are thinking about the economy at a fraught moment.

Many Fed officials have signaled in recent weeks that they are keeping a close eye on the job market as they think about what comes next for interest rates.

“If you keep too tight for too long, you will have a problem on the employment side of the Fed’s mandate,” Austan Goolsbee, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said in a CBS interview over the weekend.

Economists hope that what is happening is a return to normal, rather than a severe weakening in the job market.

The pandemic sent America’s work force on a roller-coaster ride: First, people lost jobs en masse when businesses closed to contain the coronavirus early in 2020. Then, consumer demand jumped as the economy reopened, and companies scrambled to restaff. Widespread labor shortages ensued.

But employers started to fill open jobs in earnest in 2023, helped in part by an unexpectedly strong wave of immigration. And midway through 2024, job openings are back to more normal levels and the rampant job switching of the “Great Resignation” is a thing of the past.

“We’re at the point of: Is the labor market slowing a lot, or slowing a little?” Mary C. Daly, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said during a recent event.