Job openings fell by 62,000 in November 2023, to 8.79 million, continuing a downward trend, according to the monthly JOLTS report released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Openings had hit a peak of 12 million in March 2022 but have been dropping since the start of 2023, a sign of cooling demand for labor. The general decline in job openings follows the trend of falling online job postings across the U.S.
The number of people quitting—a measure of worker confidence in the ability to leave one job for another—dropped slightly to 3.4 million, showing that workers are not as confident as they had been in their ability to find new jobs. Layoffs in November fell by over 115,000 to 1.5 million, which is consistent with the low levels of weekly unemployment claims data. Economists say that the decline in openings with few layoffs represents a relatively painless rebalancing between labor supply and demand.
On Friday, the Department of Labor will report on how many jobs the U.S. economy added in December, the unemployment rate and wage gains for the month.
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