Job openings decline sharply in December to 7.6 million, below forecast
Job openings slid in December while hiring, voluntary quits and layoffs held steady, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.
Job openings slid in December while hiring, voluntary quits and layoffs held steady, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.
Available positions tumbled to 7.6 million, the lowest since September, and below the Dow Jones estimate for 8 million, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. The decline left the ratio of open jobs to available workers at 1.1 to 1.
Though the report runs a month behind other jobs data, the Federal Reserve watches it closely for signs of a slack or tight labor market.
While the net gain in nonfarm payrolls picked up in the month by 256,000, the level of openings fell by 556,000. As a share of the labor force, openings declined to 4.5%, or 0.4 percentage point below November.
Professional and business services saw a drop of 225,000, while private education and health services declined by 194,000, and financial activities decreased by 166,000.
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