WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. job openings fell for the third straight month in November as labor market conditions gradually ease.
Job openings, a measure of labor demand, dropped 62,000 to 8.790 million on the last day of November, the Labor Department said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Wednesday.
Data for October was revised slightly higher to show 8.852 million job openings instead of the previously reported 8.733 million. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 8.850 million job openings in November. Job openings are down from a record high of 12.0 million in March 2022.
The labor market is steadily cooling following 525 basis points worth of interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve since March 2022. The unemployment rate has, however, remained below 4% as companies hoard workers following difficulties finding labor in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.S. central bank last month held its policy rate steady at the current 5.25-5.50% range and policymakers signaled in new economic projections that the historic monetary policy tightening engineered over the last two years is at an end and lower borrowing costs are coming in 2024.
The labor market’s resilience has kept a recession at bay. The government is expected to report on Friday that nonfarm payrolls increased by 168,000 jobs in December, according to a Reuters survey of economists, after rising 199,000 in November.
December’s anticipated job count would be below the average monthly gain of 240,000 over the prior 12 months, but well above the roughly 100,000 needed per month to keep up with growth in the working age population. The unemployment rate is forecast edging up to 3.8% from 3.7% in November.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
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