The number of job openings and job separations trended upward in October, while layoffs gradually declined, indicating a slight improvement in employment conditions as the labor market tightens broadly.
The number of job openings rose to 7.7 million from 7.3 million in September, while job openings in the technology and information sector surged to 208,000, the highest level since 2022, the Labor Department said Tuesday.
The number of people retiring in October was 3.3 million, up from 3.1 million in September and 3.2 million in August. The number of people who quit smoking was still down from 3.6 million in October 2023.
The number of layoffs decreased to 1.6 million from 1.8 million in September, but remained roughly flat compared to the previous year.
Despite the increase in new positions, the number of new hires decreased month-over-month to 5.3 million from 5.6 million in September.
“The strong recovery in job openings suggests limited aftershocks to labor market activity following the double whammy of October's storms and strikes,” said Noah Yosif, chief economist at the American Staffing Association. “There is,” he said in the commentary.
Economists were shocked to see a sharp rise in IT job openings and a record low in the number of layoffs in the construction sector, falling from 170,000 to 97,000.
The increase in information sector employment is “in line with the recent performance of tech stocks in the wake of the Fed's first few interest rate cuts and could signal the beginning of an upturn in hiring for tech talent,” Zip Lik said. wrote Julia Pollack, chief economist at Rooter. It's an analysis.
October's relatively strong job numbers came as labor market conditions were broadly tightening following a series of interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve in response to rising inflation, which is now easing. It is something.
There is now slightly more than one job opening for every unemployed person in the economy, a ratio that has remained stable since June, and working conditions are much lower than just after the pandemic, when there were two job openings for every job seeker. shows that it is much tighter.
“Job openings…have normalized significantly over the past two-and-a-half years since their peak in March 2022,” Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said in a commentary Tuesday.
The number of job openings has fallen from more than 12 million at the start of 2022 to the current level of 7.7 million, giving the Fed some wiggle room in how quickly it wants to stimulate the economy.
“We are trending towards a gradual cooling in the labor market, giving the Fed room to keep interest rates high and wait patiently for further inflation,” Yosif said.
