It got much harder to find a new job in the last full month of Joe Biden’s presidency.
The number of vacant jobs employers were looking to fill fell to 7.6 million in December, the second-lowest since the end of the pandemic, from 8.2 million in the prior month.
This was a much bigger decline than expected. Analysts had forecast around eight million job openings.
“Key figures in the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) are the proverbial mixed bag within the theme of continued cooling, but far from going cold. The nation’s job openings declined by 556,000 on the month to 7.6 million at the end of December, below expectations. Translated, there are 1.1 jobs open for every job-seeking unemployed individual,” said Bankrate Senior Economic Analyst Mark Hamrick.
The number of people quitting their jobs held steady at 3.2 million. Workers are less likely to quit their jobs when new work is harder to get.
Even still, few people are being let go from their jobs. The layoff rate, the share of the workforce who lose their jobs due to workforce reductions, fell to 1.1 percent. That’s near the record low hit in the post-pandemic era.
The Department of Labor’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, known as JOLTS, showed that openings fell in professional and business services, healthcare and social assistance, and finance and insurance. Openings rose in recreation, arts, and entertainment.
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