Job numbers surprisingly strong in monthly federal report

The United States had 10.1 million job openings in April, a big jump after three months of declines, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday, reflecting a strong labor market despite mass layoffs, a banking crisis and widespread uncertainty in the economy.

The report indicated the labor market could be getting hot again — a notable reversal of a cooling trend over the past year. Employers added half a million job openings between March and April, after steady declines policymakers had pointed to as a sign the labor market had come off its scorching highs from earlier last year.

“The surprise gain in job openings, combined with quits remaining steady, shows surprising vitality in the labor market,” Robert Frick, corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said in a statement. “This report should move the recession goal posts further down the field.”

The report also puts more of a spotlight on the May jobs report due to come out Friday. It’s the most up-todate snapshot on the labor market and is monitored closely by policymakers who are trying to curb rising prices by cooling the labor market.

Other indicators in Wednesday’s report also signaled the labor market isn’t slowing down as much as expected. The number of job openings per unemployed worker, a ratio the Federal Reserve has monitored closely as an indicator of labor market tightness, rose to 1.9 jobs per unemployed worker, up from 1.6 the previous month.

And even as reports of mass terminations at companies such as Meta, Lyft and Deloitte captured headlines, layoffs dropped by 1% to 1.6 million. Indeed, some of the largest declines in layoffs in April were in the interest-rate-sensitive industries of construction and information, which includes tech.

“Layoffs in tech are getting more attention because of where they are,” said Elise Gould, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “Obviously they are damaging for people who lost their jobs, but it hasn’t been as damaging as the numbers would suggest.”

Health care, construction, trade and transportation were among the industries that posted more job openings in April.

The report also showed some signs of a gradual return to pre-pandemic norms in the labor market. The rate of workers quitting their jobs, which has been elevated, giving workers more leverage as they switched jobs, fell again to 2.4%, almost returning to its pre-pandemic level. Job openings fell in manufacturing, leisure and hospitality, and the information sector.

Economists urge caution in reading too much into the Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly reports due to volatility in the data and reports from outside sources that suggest labor market has cooled more than BLS reports indicate.