Job openings barely budged in March as the hiring rate reached its highest level in nearly two years, Labor Department data released Tuesday showed. But layoffs also crept higher.
Some 6.87 million jobs were open in March, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, slightly above economists’ expectations of 6.85 million openings and just below February’s revised number.
The hiring rate, which in February plummeted to its worst level since the early days of the pandemic, improved to 3.5%, matching levels last seen in May 2024.
Layoffs and discharges, meanwhile, ticked up to 1.9 million, compared to 1.7 million in February. Still, though this year has brought a slew of job cut announcements from notable firms like Oracle, Meta, Walt Disney, Snap, and others, the layoff rate remains low at 1.2%.
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Job cuts hit largely in professional and business services, which saw the number of positions eliminated increase by 99,000 between February and March. Trade, transportation, and utilities also laid off more workers than they did the month prior. Layoff levels were highest in the Midwest, West, and South.
Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, noted in a post on X that hiring was strong in professional and business services (+165,000) and hospitality (+124,000), as well as transportation, warehousing, and utilities (+108,000).
“The war in Iran is likely to halt progress,” Long wrote. “But any sign of a hiring pickup is welcome news after the ‘hiring recession’ in the past year or so.”
Emma Ockerman is a reporter covering the economy and labor for Yahoo Finance. You can reach her at emma.ockerman@yahooinc.com.
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