Job openings fell below 10 million February for the first time in nearly two years, in a sign that the Federal Reserve’s efforts to slow the labor market may be having some impact.
Available positions totaled 9.93 million, a drop of 632,000 from January’s downwardly revised number, the Labor Department reported Tuesday in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. It was the first time vacancies fell below 10 million since May 2021.
The Fed has targeted the red-hot labor market in its quest to bring down inflation, which had been running at a 41-year high in the summer of 2022. The central bank has raised benchmark interest rates nine times since March 2022, but those moves had been appearing to have little impact on the jobs situation.
Prior to the February data, job openings had been outnumbering available workers by nearly 2 to 1. The latest figures bring that ratio down to less than 1.7 to 1.
Treasury yields fell following the release as the data could help dissuade the Fed from further rate hikes. Though the numbers run a month behind, the Fed watches the JOLTS data closely for signs of labor slack.
Along with the decline in job openings, hires and separations also decreased slightly. Quits, a sign of labor confidence in the ability to switch jobs, rose by 146,000 to just over 4 million.
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