US job openings rose last month, though hiring slowed, in mixed picture for labor economy

WASHINGTON — The number of job postings in the United States rebounded in October from a 3 1/2 year low in September, a sign that businesses are still seeking workers even though hiring has cooled.

Openings rose 5% to 7.7 million from 7.4 million in September, the Labor Department said Tuesday. The boost suggests that job gains could pick up in the coming months. Still, the latest figure is down significantly from 8.7 million job postings a year ago.

Last month, job openings rose sharply in professional and business services, a category that includes engineers, managers, and accountants, as well as in the restaurant and hotel and information technology industries.

The number of people quitting their jobs rose in October, a sign of confidence in the job economy. And layoffs tumbled to just 1.6 million — below the lowest figures in the two decades that preceded the 2020 pandemic.

Taken as a whole, Tuesday’s figures recommend that the job economy might be stabilizing at a modest level, with hiring moderate but layoffs uncommonly low. The unemployment rate is at a low 4.1%, even though job gains slowed sharply in October, according to the monthly jobs update. The slowdown in job growth last month reflected mainly the impact of hurricanes and a strike at Boeing.

“There’s a lot of factor for optimism,” said Cory Stahle, an economist at Indeed, the job listings website. “The truth that job openings ticked up is always an encouraging sign.”

Tuesday’s figures cruel there are now 1.1 available jobs for each unemployed worker, a well figure. Before the pandemic there were usually more unemployed people than openings.

Still, the latest ratio is down from a peak of roughly two job openings per unemployed person two years ago. Businesses have pulled back from the hiring frenzy that occurred as the economy emerged from the pandemic decline.

Tuesday’s update, known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, showed that overall hiring slowed in October. Total hiring slipped to 5.3 million from 5.6 million, though that decline reflected hurricane-related disruptions.

The JOLTS update is divide from the monthly jobs figures, which will be released Friday. That update is projection to display a net gain of nearly 210,000 jobs in November, up from an anemic 12,000 in October.

Tuesday’s update also showed that the number of Americans who quit their jobs rebounded in October to 3.4 million, after having reached a four-year low in September. An boost in quitting is a excellent sign for the economy, because it suggests that people are confident enough to search for recent job opportunities.

The Federal safety net is watching the jobs data closely. Any sign that hiring is sharply weakening could inspire Fed officials to cut their key gain rate more quickly, to try to bolster borrowing and spending and back the economy.