Job openings fell in February to the lowest in nearly two years as the labor market trends towards the “better balance” Federal Reserve officials, including chair Jerome Powell, have been seeking.
The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, released Tuesday showed there were 9.9 million jobs open at the end of the month, down from 10.6 million in January and 11.6 million in the same month last year.
Job openings peaked at over 12 million in March 2022; since that peak, the U.S. economy has added 10.25 million new jobs.
This slowdown in the number of open positions also suggests the labor market is trending toward an equilibrium between supply and demand the Fed has seen as pushing wages and inflation higher in recent years.
“The labor force participation rate has edged up in recent months, and wage growth has shown some signs of easing,” Powell said in a press conference last month. “However, with job vacancies still very high, labor demand substantially exceeds the supply of available workers. FOMC participants expect supply and demand conditions in the labor market to come into better balance over time, easing upward pressures on wages and prices.”
The Fed has raised rates from a range of 0%-0.25% at the beginning of 2022 to a target range of 4.75%-5% today, the highest level since 2007.
Progress on bringing down the number of open roles in the economy, however, is in the eyes of some economists just that: progress.
“While the Fed will welcome the softening in the data, officials will put much more stock in Friday’s employment report and will continue to raise rates at the coming meetings to ensure further progress is made toward softer labor market conditions and lower inflation,” Matthew Martin, U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday.
Click here to read the full story from Myles Udland, head of news at Yahoo.
