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The U.S. labor market posted 7.6 million job openings in April, a gain of 731,000 from March and the highest level since May 2024, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. The figure exceeded economist forecasts of roughly 6.8 million to 6.9 million, according to Reuters and CNBC.
The jump in openings came even as hiring softened. The hires rate slipped 0.3 percentage point to 3.2%, as companies brought on 5.1 million workers — a drop of 419,000 from the prior month. Separations were broadly subdued, with layoffs and discharges coming in at 1.7 million and voluntary quits near 3.0 million.
Nearly the entire increase in openings was concentrated in a single sector. Gains in professional and business services drove virtually the entire increase, with that sector posting 668,000 additional openings and hitting its highest point in three years, according to Bloomberg. Among sectors moving in the other direction, finance and insurance shed roughly 135,000 openings, with the remaining industries largely unchanged.
Openings once again outpaced the total unemployed workforce, though the vacancy-to-unemployed ratio stayed roughly flat at about one job per out-of-work person, according to Bloomberg.
