#Job #Openings #Fell #Hiring #Rose #Mixed #Bag #Report
Key takeaways
- The number of job vacancies fell in September, but hiring increased, painting a mixed picture of the state of the labor market.
- Employers remained reluctant to lay off employees, and workers were less likely to quit, suggesting that people were less confident in finding better options than their current situation.
- Concerns about the health of the labor market prompted the Federal Reserve to cut its benchmark interest rate, and the September job openings report left expectations for another cut in November unchanged.
US employers reduced job openings in September, but remained conservative about hiring and firing, as the overall market remained stable but became more sluggish.
There were 7.4 million job openings in September, down from 7.9 million in August and the fewest since January 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday. That was fewer than the 8 million jobs economists had expected, according to a survey of economists Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
The dwindling number of open jobs was a sour note in the Job Opportunities and Labor Turnover Survey report, which provides a more detailed look at labor market turmoil.
Labor market details
Workplaces laid off 1.8 million people, the most since January 2023, although relatively few compared to pre-pandemic levels. Fewer people left their jobs, suggesting they were less confident about finding a new one: 3.1 million people quit in September, the lowest number since August 2020.
However, it wasn’t all bad news for workers: Employment accelerated to 5.6 million, the highest level in four months. There were 1.1 open jobs for every unemployed worker, similar to pre-pandemic levels and well below the hot job market of 2022 when there were 2 open jobs for every unemployed worker.
“Hiring and job-shifting are slowing, but layoffs are also very low,” CIBC economist Ali Jafari wrote in a commentary. “Part of this story likely reflects companies hiring enough employees and connecting the right technology to workers, reducing their demand for additional labor at this point in the cycle but being able to rely on the strong productivity of their existing workforce.”
The report is a ‘mixed bag’
Overall, the report was a “mixed bag” that did little to change the overall job market picture, Nancy Vanden Houten, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in a commentary.
The lack of major surprises leaves the Fed on track to cut its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points when the central bank’s policy committee next meets in November, Vanden Houten said.
The Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates in September to lower borrowing costs and boost the economy. The Fed had kept its benchmark interest rate at its highest level in two decades to fight inflation, but as price increases have slowed and the labor market has slowed, the Fed has increasingly turned its attention toward preventing unemployment from rising. A lower federal funds rate puts downward pressure on borrowing costs for credit cards, auto loans, mortgages and other loans.
Financial markets were calculating a 99.7% chance of a 0.25 percentage point cut in November, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, which forecasts interest rate movements based on federal funds futures trading data.
#Job #Openings #Fell #Hiring #Rose #Mixed #Bag #Report
