U.S. job openings slip below 10 million for first time since 2021 in February

By Scott Kanowsky 

Investing.com -- The number of job openings in the U.S. fell for the second straight month in February, according to data from the Labor Department on Tuesday.

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, showed that vacancies dipped to 9.931 million during the month, slipping from a downwardly revised level of 10.56 million in January and 11.23 million in December.

Economists had seen the February figure, which also fell below 10 million for the first time since 2021, coming in at 10.40 million.

Lay-offs, meanwhile, dropped by 215,000 to 1.5 million and voluntary quits moved up by 146,000 to 4.0 million. Due to month-on-month volatility in vacancies, lay-offs are often viewed as a more reliable indicator of the state of the labor market.

The smaller-than-expected JOLTS reading could be seen as a sign of a cooling job market in the world's largest economy, and, potentially, as a case against further Federal Reserve rate hikes. The Fed has cited a softening in employer demand for workers as a key objective of its recently aggressive monetary policy tightening cycle, arguing that such a trend would help ease high inflation levels.

But the job market has stayed mostly resilient despite the Fed's policy maneuvers. Employers still added 311,000 jobs in February, far above economists' expectations, although growth in average hourly earnings slowed.