The Job Openings and Labor Turnover report released today covers March. Job openings were down about 300,000 from February, at about 7.2 million, but was around 900,000 lower than in March 2024. Once more I will caution that these numbers are fake, in the sense that employers often just keep job postings up with no urgency to actually fill the position. There were 5.4 million hires and 5.1 million separations, both voluntary and involuntary, during the month. Somewhat surprisingly, still not huge numbers of terminations at the federal government, but there was substantial decline in government job openings. (BLS Report)
There was no significant jump in manufacturing openings, despite all the trade/tariff nonsense, and no increase in hires, which I frankly will attribute to a lack of qualified personnel. The notion that the US could rapidly ramp up manufacturing is just a delusion. There were declines in openings in construction, transportation, warehousing and utilities, education, health services and leisure and hospitality. The gap between job openings and unemployed workers continues to narrow. All in all, not an inspiring report for the state of the US economy.
