{"id":522284,"date":"2026-03-14T01:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T01:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/522284\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T01:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T01:53:13","slug":"us-job-openings-rise-to-a-better-than-expected-7-million-despite-sluggish-labor-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/522284\/","title":{"rendered":"US job openings rise to a better-than-expected 7 million despite sluggish labor market"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 U.S. job openings rose to nearly 7 million in January, better than expected at a time when the American labor market has looked sluggish<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 6.95 million job postings in January were up from 6.55 million in December, the Labor Department said Friday. That was higher than economists had forecast.<\/p>\n

Layoffs fell slightly and the number of Americans quitting their jobs \u2014 a sign of confidence in their prospects \u2014 slipped modestly.<\/p>\n

In the hiring boom that followed COVID-19 lockdowns, job openings peaked at a record 12.3 million in March 2022.<\/p>\n

The American job market is sputtering. Last month, employers cut 92,000 jobs. In 2025, they added fewer than 10,000 jobs a month, weakest hiring outside recession years since 2002. The lingering effects of high interest rates, uncertainty around President Donald Trump’s policies and possibly the increasing use of artificial intelligence<\/a> appear to be weighing on the labor market.<\/p>\n

The U.S. economy has been resilient in the face of President Donald Trump\u2019s import taxes<\/a> and deportations<\/a>. But the Commerce Department reported Friday that economic growth slowed sharply in the last three months of 2025 \u2014 to 0.7%, half its initial estimate of fourth-quarter growth and down from a strong 4.4% advance in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

The war in Iran has also created considerable uncertainty over the economic outlook.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least companies were posting more jobs in January. Job openings did rise, but companies weren\u2019t actually hiring much. The United States is in the midst of a hiring recession,\u2033 said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. \u201cThe only good news is layoffs also remain low, but it\u2019s hard for anyone looking for a job right now, and the war in Iran and AI adoption are only going to make this spring more challenging for job seekers.\u2033<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 U.S. job openings rose to nearly 7 million in January, better than expected at a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[235493,28,101,538,23258,942],"class_list":["post-522284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-american-labor","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-job-market","tag-labor-department","tag-president-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}