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Job openings fall to pre-pandemic levels

  • CNN
  • October 29, 2024
CNN

 — 

In the next four days, a firehose of data will be unleashed, providing crucial snapshots of the US economy in advance of a pivotal election and a Federal Reserve meeting.

The first burst on Tuesday, a critical read on labor market activity, showed that hiring has slowed but workers still remain in demand.

There were an estimated 7.4 million unfilled jobs on the last day of September, a drop from August's revised tally of 7.86 million openings, according to new data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Economists were expecting the number of job openings to land around 7.9 million, declining from the prior month's initial estimate of 8.04 million, according to FactSet estimates.

The decline in job openings reflects a labor market that has slowed back to a pre-pandemic pace after experiencing years of blockbuster growth.

The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), which provides a sense of how much churn and movement there is in the job market, is the first major report to land in an economic data-heavy week.

It's also likely the last clean piece of labor market data: The ongoing Boeing strike and Hurricanes Helene and Milton are expected to heavily distort jobs data starting with the month of October.