, a reflection of a labor market that is slowly settling back into balance after the Federal Reserve’s yearlong campaign to cool off the economy. Job openings totaled 9.59 million in March, according to monthly data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s down from an upwardly revised 9.974 million reported in February and represents the third consecutive month that available jobs have fallen. Economists were expecting 9.
data is now pointing in a similar direction as other labor market data, Bunker said. “The cooldown in the US labor market is unambiguous at this point,” he said. The impact of the banking turmoil The declines in openings and increases in layoffs were seen across the country’s four regions. Some of the biggest pullbacks in openings occurred at the small business level, or employers with fewer than 50 workers, Pollak said.
report is one of the last pieces of key economic data to be released before the Fed’s policymaking decision on Wednesday. Economists and analysts expect that the Fed will raise its benchmark rate by another quarter point — marking the central bank’s 10th rate hike since March 2022. Economists also widely anticipate that the Fed will then pause to assess the effects of its own tightening cycle as well as any impacts from the recent upheaval within the banking industry.