{"id":499561,"date":"2026-01-07T19:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T19:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/499561\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T19:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T19:09:09","slug":"job-openings-slide-to-2nd-lowest-level-in-5-years-as-hiring-remains-sluggish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/499561\/","title":{"rendered":"Job openings slide to 2nd lowest level in 5 years as hiring remains sluggish"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON — U.S. employers posted far fewer jobs in November than the previous month, a sign that employers aren\u2019t yet ramping up hiring even as growth has picked up<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Businesses and government agencies posted 7.1 million open jobs at the end of November, the Labor Department said Wednesday<\/a>, down from 7.4 million in October. Layoffs also dropped, however, as companies appear to be holding onto workers even as they are reluctant to add staff.<\/p>\n

The report suggests that the \u201clow-hire, low-fire\u201d<\/a> job market remains in effect, with workers enjoying some job security but those out of work struggling to find new jobs. The moribund labor market<\/a> stands in contrast with data showing solid economic growth<\/a>, which topped 4% at an annual rate in last year’s July-September quarter, the latest data available. Economists forecast growth slowed but remained solid in the final three months of 2025. <\/p>\n

A key question for this year is whether hiring will pickup to match healthy growth, or whether sluggish job gains will eventually drag down the economy. There is a third possibility: Automation and artificial intelligence could enable steady economic growth without creating many jobs. <\/p>\n

Further insights into that question will emerge Friday when the monthly jobs report for December will be released. <\/p>\n

The number of postings in November<\/a> was the fewest since September 2024. But outside that month, it was the lowest in nearly five years. <\/p>\n

Open jobs in November fell sharply in shipping and warehousing, restaurants and hotels, and in state and local government. They rose in retail and construction. <\/p>\n

The number of Americans who quit their jobs ticked higher in November, which is seen as a good sign, because workers typically quit when they are more confident they can find a better job, or already have one. Yet quits remained historically low, at 3.16 million, up from just under 3 million in October. <\/p>\n

The figures provide some critical measures of the job market after last fall\u2019s government shutdown<\/a> delayed the release of data on hiring and inflation. Wednesday\u2019s report is known as the job openings and labor turnover survey, or JOLTS, and provides key insights into the state of hiring and firing. <\/p>\n

Separately, payroll provider ADP said Wednesday that businesses added 41,000 jobs in December, an improvement after they shed 29,000 positions in November. ADP’s report is based on anonymous payroll records the company maintains for 26 million employees. <\/p>\n

Small firms \u2014 with fewer than 50 workers \u2014 added 9,000 jobs, an encouraging reversal after they shed jobs in previous months. Smaller firms have been hard-hit by President Donald Trump’s tariffs, with less ability to absorb or pass on the costs compared with larger companies, economists say. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a slower labor market,\u201d said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP. “The labor market isn\u2019t falling off a cliff. We still see some job growth, and we don\u2019t see an uptick in layoffs.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Bank of America Institute, which tracks changes in the number of paychecks landing in its customers’ accounts, said it saw signs that hiring picked up in December. Job gains rose to 0.6% in December, compared with a year earlier, up from just 0.2% in November. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt does look like, in our data, that the worst of the slowdown could be behind us,\u201d David Tinsley, senior economist at Bank of America Institute, said in a call with reporters. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON — U.S. employers posted far fewer jobs in November than the previous month, a sign that employers…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":499562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[224273,347,64,79,57,63,606,61,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-499561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-224273","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-jobs-and-careers","14":"tag-labor","15":"tag-u-s-news","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115855397018508990","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}