{"id":335377,"date":"2025-12-09T21:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T21:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/335377\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T21:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T21:35:08","slug":"rise-in-us-job-openings-offers-hope-of-labour-market-stabilisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/335377\/","title":{"rendered":"Rise in US job openings offers hope of labour market stabilisation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n

US job openings ticked up to a five-month high in October, signalling to the Federal Reserve ahead of Wednesday\u2019s interest rate decision that the domestic labour market is stabilising.<\/p>\n

Job openings advertised by US employers \u2014 widely considered to be a proxy for labour demand \u2014 tallied 7.67mn during the month, the labour department said on Tuesday, up from 7.66mn in September. <\/p>\n

The two monthly figures marked the first Job Openings and Labor Turnover reports since the 43-day federal government shutdown delayed and cancelled several economic data releases, prompting investors and economists to seek private-sector statistics to gauge the health of the world\u2019s largest economy.<\/p>\n

October\u2019s figure surpassed economists\u2019 expectations of 7.11mn roles, according to a Bloomberg survey. Openings for workers in healthcare and retail trade drove the increase.<\/p>\n

The higher than expected openings number comes amid heightened concerns about the health of the US economy. Investors and economists had feared the labour market had deteriorated beyond its \u201clow hire, low fire\u201d state, a situation where the unemployment rate<\/a> remains historically low but those out of work are finding it tough to land a new job.<\/p>\n

Matthew Martin, senior US economist at Oxford Economics, said: \u201cThe data<\/a> is unlikely to prevent the Federal Reserve<\/a> from following through with a rate cut later this week, but it does support our assumption that officials will opt for an extended pause due to signs of labour market stabilisation.\u201d <\/p>\n

Economists expect the Fed to cut rates by a quarter point on Wednesday to help prop up the labour market, but with inflation above the bank\u2019s target rate, policymakers and investors remain divided on the outlook for monetary policy in 2026.<\/p>\n

The two-year Treasury yield, which shifts with changes in monetary policy expectations, was up 0.03 percentage points at 3.61 per cent in afternoon dealings. The S&P 500 was up 0.1 per cent.<\/p>\n

Nicole Bachaud, a labour economist at jobs site ZipRecruiter, called the increase in job openings \u201ca welcomed refresh to a stale labour market with rising unemployment\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this trend continues, employers can expect to see a tighter labour market ahead in 2026 as the labour force continues to retract, and negotiating power is handed back to workers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Despite the increase in job openings, employers have been slow to fill those roles. Hirings dropped by 218,000 to 5.149mn in October. The number of workers who quit their jobs \u2014 the economists\u2019 preferred measure of workers\u2019 confidence in the labour market \u2014 fell slightly to 1.8 per cent. That is the lowest level in more than five years, indicating some stagnation.<\/p>\n

Lay-offs also rose 4 per cent to 1.9mn with high-profile workforce reductions<\/a> at companies including Amazon, Paramount, United Parcel Service and Target.<\/p>\n

The labour department will release its delayed non-farm payrolls data for November next Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-335377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}