In October, the number of job vacancies in the United States steadily increased, while the number of layoffs experienced the largest decline in a year and a half. These data indicate that the market is currently slowing down in an orderly manner compared to the previously hot labor market.
The data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the US Department of Labor on Tuesday, December 3, showed that the total number of job vacancies in October was 7.74 million, an increase of 372,000 from September, higher than the estimated 7.5 million by the Dow Jones & Company and the 7.475 million predicted by economists surveyed by Reuters. The job vacancy rate rose from 4.4% to 4.6%.
This data led to a decrease in the ratio of job vacancies in October to the number of available workers to 1.11:1, meaning there were approximately 1.11 job opportunities per job seeker. This ratio was higher than the 1.08:1 in September but far lower than the peak of 2.03 reached at the beginning of 2022.
The increase in job vacancies was mainly driven by the professional and business services sector, which had 209,000 vacancies. The accommodation and food services industry saw an increase of 162,000 job vacancies, while the information industry had 87,000 job vacancies.
All job vacancies were found in small businesses, with 321,000 job vacancies in enterprises with 1 to 9 employees.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report released on Tuesday also showed that employers were unwilling to hire more workers. However, despite this, employers did not engage in large-scale layoffs. The number of layoffs decreased by 169,000 in October, with the layoff rate dropping from 1.1% in September to 1.0%.
However, more workers quit their jobs in October, possibly in search of better opportunities. The number of resignations surged by 228,000 to reach 3.326 million, the highest since May 2023. The resignation rate, considered a good indicator of labor market confidence, increased from 1.9% in September to 2.1%.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics has always been one of the key economic indicators closely monitored by Federal Reserve policy makers, with central bank officials using this data to look for signs of weakness in the labor market. The market expects the Federal Reserve to cut the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points at their meeting later this month, in part to avoid any potential weakness in the labor market.