US job openings hit six-month high, but hiring falls

(Sharecast News) - Job openings in the United States came in ahead of economists' predictions to hit a six-month high, but the outlook for the labour market is far from rosy amid a drop in hiring levels. According to the closely followed monthly JOLTS survey released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, job openings rose to 8.09m in November, up from a revised 7.84m in October.

This was comfortably ahead of the 7.70m reading expected by a consensus of analysts, and the highest level since May 2024.

It is thought that the increase was mainly due to a rebound in employment following recent hurricanes and an increase in positions available ahead of the festive shopping season.

However, according to analysts at Oxford Economics, while numbers were up month-on-month, the ratio of openings to unemployed workers is still below pre-pandemic norms and doesn't necessarily equate to a health jobs market.

The number of quits continued to decline, falling by 1.9% or 218,000 to 3.1m, down 451,000 when compared with November 2023, which could imply that workers are less confident about securing another job. The quits rate remains well below pre-pandemic norms with the overall number a far cry from the record 4.5m people who quit their jobs in April 2022.

On a more positive note, fewer companies are letting workers go, with the number of layoffs and discharges little changed at 1.8m. The rate of layoffs held steady at close to a record-low level of 1.1%

However, new hires still declined by 2.3% to 5.3m, with the hiring rate falling 0.2 percentage points to 3.3%.

"Prior to the pandemic, a hiring rate of 3.3% corresponded to an unemployment rate of 8.2%, a full 4ppts above the current unemployment rate, but a low pace of layoffs has kept the unemployment rate from rising sharply and net job growth positive," said Nancy Vanden Houten, US lead economist at Oxford Economics.