
The labor market may be cooling, but that doesn’t mean companies aren’t still looking for workers to fill jobs.
The Labor Department reported Tuesday that job openings rose to 8.1 million in November, the most since February and up from 7.8 million in October. They were down from 8.9 million a year earlier and a peak of 12.2 million in March 2022, but still exceed pre-pandemic levels.
Layoffs rose slightly in November, and the number of people quitting their jobs fell, suggesting that Americans are less confident in their ability to find better jobs elsewhere, The Associated Press reported.
Openings were up in professional and business services, a broad category that includes managerial and technical workers, and in finance and insurance, but dropped in the information industry, which includes publishers and telecommunications companies.
The American labor market has cooled; employers added 180,000 jobs a month in 2024 through November, down from 251,000 in 2023, 377,000 in 2022 and a record 604,000 in 2021.
The Federal Reserve closely monitors the labor market for clues about where inflation is headed. Fast hiring could push up wages and prices. Weakness might suggest the economy needs a jolt from lower interest rates.
At its December meeting, the Fed cut its benchmark interest rate for the third time in 2024, though they signaled that they’re likely to be more cautious about future rate cuts, projecting just two in 2025, down from the four they had foreseen in September.
“Despite more job openings, hiring is weakening, workers are even more reluctant to quit their jobs, and layoffs are low,” Robert Frick, economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union, told the AP. ”It feels like a wait-and-see scenario as employers and employees alike wait for the next administration’s policies.”