“The decline in job openings does not indicate any meaningful improvement in the balance between labor demand and labor supply from the perspective of the Fed,” said Conrad DeQuadros, senior economic advisor at Brean Capital in New York. “If one wanted to clutch at straws, one could point to the second consecutive decline in the quits rate.”
Labor market tightness was reinforced by the Fed’s Beige Book, which described conditions as remaining “solid” in February and also noted “scattered reports of layoffs” and that “finding workers with desired skills or experience remained challenging.” But job openings increased in transportation, warehousing, and utilities as well as nondurable goods manufacturing.
Layoffs jumped 241,000 to 1.7 million, the highest level since December 2020, concentrated in the professional and business services industries. Layoffs, however, decreased in federal government. They increased sharply in the South, which has been experiencing an employment boom. About 3.9 million people quit their jobs. That was the fewest since May 2021 and was down 207,000 from December. The decline was mostly in professional and business services, educational services, and the federal government. A record 50.6 million people quit in 2022.Stocks on Wall Street were mixed. The dollar was steady against a basket of currencies. US Treasury prices were mixed.