U.S. Job Openings Rebounded in January Before Virus Impact

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. job openings rebounded in January, adding to signs that the labor market remained solid at the start of this year before the coronavirus began to weigh heavily on the economy.

The number of available positions rose to 6.96 million from an upwardly revised 6.55 million in December, according to the Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, released Tuesday. That compares with a median forecast for a modest drop to 6.4 million. Job openings increased by 65,000 in finance and insurance and by 8,000 for mining and logging.

Key Insights

• The increase shows that there was some upward momentum for hiring in the first month of the year, and that the total number of openings exceeded the total number of unemployed Americans by more than 1 million before disruptions from the outbreak.
• The release also included revised annual estimates for 2019 hires, which rose by 1.3 million 69.9 million, and separations, which increased by 1.7 million to 67.9 million.
• The figures lag a month behind the Labor Department’s jobs report, which showed strong hiring in February with a second-straight gain of 273,000. Federal Reserve policy makers have consistently noted robust employment, and said even in this week’s announcement of an emergency interest-rate cut that the labor market remained strong through February and that job gains have been solid.

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• Hires and separations were little changed in January at 5.8 million and 5.6 million respectively.
• The quits rate held at 2.3%.

To contact the reporter on this story: Max Reyes in Washington at mreyes125@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Scott Lanman at slanman@bloomberg.net, Jeff Kearns, Ana Monteiro

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