Job openings in April remain near record highs, U.S. employers report

Demand for workers remained near record highs, with 11.4 million job openings in April, as the tight labor market continues to be a bright spot for the U.S. economy.

Some 4.4 million Americans quit or changed jobs that month, according to a report released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, using their leverage in an economy where job openings still outnumber job seekers by close to 2 to 1.

Employers reported hiring 6.6 million people in April. Layoffs, meanwhile, fell to an all-time low of 1.2 million, as businesses sought to keep the workers they did have.

“The labor market remains strong even though things are cooling off a bit,” said Nick Bunker, an economist at the jobs site Indeed. “We’re still very much in a worker’s and job seeker’s market.”

The latest figures come as the U.S. job market notches month after month of solid growth. U.S. employers added 428,000 jobs in April - the 12th consecutive month of at least 400,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate is at a pandemic low of 3.6%.

In all, the labor market has added more than 6.5 million jobs in the past year and is on pace to return to pre-pandemic levels this summer. The May jobs report, being released Friday, is widely expected to reflect continued strength in the labor market, though the pace of growth may be moderating from recent highs.

That brisk growth has given the Federal Reserve confidence that it can raise interest rates to fight inflation without causing a recession.

“The labor market is still looking strong, which validates the Federal Reserve’s sense that there’s enough momentum to slow things down without tanking it entirely,” said Erica Groshen, an economist at Cornell University and a former head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “This is a period of very high churn, but it’s by and large driven by workers who are quitting to switch jobs, not to leave the labor market entirely.”