Job Openings Surprisingly Jumped To Six-Month High In November | Global News Avenue

Employers hung more job ads in November as the job market unexpectedly rebounded.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday that U.S. employers had 8.1 million job openings in November, up from 7.8 million in October. That was the highest level since May and exceeded forecasters’ expectations, according to a survey of economists, who called for the number of job vacancies to remain unchanged. Dow Jones Newswires and wall street journal.

However, the uptick in the job market has not changed the overall picture of the job market, which is seeing relatively slow hiring and layoffs compared to the post-pandemic era of 2022 and 2023. In November, there were 1.1 jobs for every unemployed worker, down from a record 2:1 ratio in mid-2022 and just below the pre-pandemic ratio of 1.2:1.

Layoffs remain few, with the layoff rate remaining at 1.1%, near the all-time low it has been hovering at since 2021. Workers are no more willing to quit than employers are willing to fire them: the resignation rate fell to 1.9% from 2.1% in October. The lower the resignation rate, the less confident employees will be in finding higher-paying positions elsewhere.

On the other hand, hiring slowed for the second consecutive week, falling to 3.3% from 3.4% in October.

“The report shows an entrenched labor market,” Robert Frick, corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, wrote in a commentary. “While vacancies are increasing, hiring is weakening, workers are more reluctant to quit, and layoffs are low. It feels like a wait-and-see situation as both employers and employees wait to see what policies the next administration will have.”