Fewer people switching jobs in the US; job openings fall

Job openings in the US dropped to almost a three-year low in November, as per the data from the Labour Department. That means, the number of people giving up their jobs in favour of better pay has decreased to the lowest level since February 2021.

Job openings fell (by 62,000) and reached the lowest since the first quarter of 2021, touching 8.79 million in November.

Clearly, the number of job hoppers has fallen, which is likely to allow wage growth to continue reasonably and bring inflation down. This also means that this year may witness cutting of interest rates by the Federal Reserve.

The number of resignations fell 1,57,000 to 3.471 million, which is the lowest since February of 2021. The maximum drop in resignations was witnessed in the professional and business services sector, where number of quitters fell by 77,000.

The labour market appears to be quite strong, though with about 1.4 job openings for every jobless individual. In October, this figure was 1.36. Layoffs reached the lowest level since December of 2022.

There were 8.852 million vacancies in October compared to the 12 million unfilled positions in March 2022.

Vacancies in the federal government fell by 58,000, whereas the vacancies in the warehousing, transportation and utilities industry fell by 1,28,000. The wholesale trade sector witnessed a rise in unfilled positions, which increased by 63,000. The job vacancies rate remained unchanged at 5.3 per cent.

While there were positions available in small businesses, the number of vacancies in medium-sized and large companies declined in the private sector. There was no dearth of openings in the Midwest, while job opportunities dropped in the South of the US.

Hiring dropped by 3,63,000, to 5.4 million. This is the lowest since April of 2020.