Job openings reached their lowest level since March 2021 in January, showing further signs of rebalancing in the labor market.
There were 8.86 million open jobs at the end of January, down slightly from the 8.89 million jobs opened in December. According to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Released Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected 8.85 million job opportunities in January.
The report also showed that the quit rate, a sign of confidence among workers, fell to 2.1%, down from 2.2% the previous month, the lowest level since August 2020. In addition, the Job Opportunities and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) showed Employment of 5.7 million employees during the month, a slight decrease from 5.8 million employees in December.
The employment rate was 3.6% in January. In summary, Nancy Vanden Houten, chief US economist at Oxford Economics, described Wednesday's report as “consistent with a labor market that remains very strong.”
The release comes as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies on Capitol Hill. Powell described the labor market as “relatively tight” but noted that “supply and demand conditions have continued to achieve a better balance.”
Elsewhere on Wednesday, the ADP Research Institute released Monthly Pay Insights Report Wage gains for people who change jobs showed an increase in February for the first time since November 2022.
This is noteworthy because wage gains for job changers are “the most sensitive to current labor market activity,” Nila Richardson, chief economist at ADP, told Yahoo Finance. Richardson added that the number shows that the massive wage growth seen during the pandemic “is not going to go quietly.”
“[Wages] “It actually shows that the tightness in terms of the labor market is still very prevalent,” Richardson said.
However, there were other signs on Wednesday that could indicate that a slowdown in wage growth is on the horizon, which many believe would be a welcome sign for the fight against inflation. SoFi Head of Investment Strategy Liz Young Marked with an X This quitting trend tends to lead wage growth by about nine months. So the decline in quitting seen in the January JOLTs report suggests “further slowdown in wages” to come.
Another wage update will come with the February jobs report, which is scheduled to be released at 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday. Economists polled by Bloomberg expect wages to grow by 4.3% in February, down from 4.5% in January. Overall, economists expect 200,000 jobs to be added to the US economy while the unemployment rate remains steady at 3.7%.
Josh Schaeffer is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X @_joshschafer.
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