Washington– US job openings barely budged in October, reaching 7.7 million as uncertainty over the situation persists. The direction of the American economy.
The Labor Department reported Tuesday that employers posted 7.67 million job openings in October, close to the 7.66 million job openings in September.
The Job Opportunities and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), which was delayed by the extended government shutdown, showed that layoffs rose to nearly 1.9 million, most since January 2023. The number of people leaving their jobs — a sign of confidence in the labor market — fell in October, suggesting that “companies seeking to control labor costs will have to focus on active layoffs and raising unemployment, rather than relying on natural attrition,” says Samuel Toombs, senior executive… American economists at the Bank of England. Pantheon wrote in a comment.
Job openings have declined steadily since peaking at a record 12.1 million in March 2022, when the economy was rebounding from coronavirus lockdowns. The labor market has slowed in part because of the lingering effect of higher interest rates designed by the Fed in 2022 and 2023 to combat a wave of inflation.
Overall, it’s a confusing time for the US economy, which has been affected by President Donald Trump’s decision to reverse decades of US policy in favor of free trade and impose double-digit tariffs on imports from most of the world’s countries.
Policymakers at the Federal Reserve meet this week to decide whether to cut the benchmark interest rate, and this meeting is expected to be Unusually controversial. Inflation remains stuck above the Fed’s 2% target, in part because importers are trying to pass on the cost of Trump’s tariffs through higher prices. Normally, stubborn inflation would discourage Fed policymakers from cutting interest rates. But the labor market has looked fragile in recent months, and the Federal Reserve is expected to cut its benchmark interest rate for a third time this year, although some policymakers may oppose that.
Meanwhile, a 43-day federal shutdown has wreaked havoc on the government’s economic statistics.
The October jobs report was released a week late, and the September version was not published separately because federal data collectors were on vacation. Instead, September’s JOLTS numbers were consolidated into Tuesday’s report alongside the October report. They showed a significant increase in openings from 7.23 million in August.
The Labor Department will release November employment and unemployment numbers next Tuesday, 11 days later than originally scheduled. The department did not announce the unemployment rate for October because it was unable to calculate the number during the lockdown. It will release some October jobs data — including the number of jobs created by employers that month — along with the full November jobs report.
Forecasters surveyed by data firm FactSet expect that employers added fewer than 38,000 jobs in November and that the unemployment rate rose to 4.5% from 4.4% in September. This number would be low by historical standards, but it is the highest in nearly four years.