US job openings fall to 7.6 million in December, suggesting the job market is slower but healthy

US job openings fell in December, a sign that Labor market is cooling, but still healthy.

The openings fell to 7.6 million, from 8.2 million in November, the work department reported on Tuesday. They were down from 8.9 million a year earlier and a highlight of 12.2 million in March 2022, when the economy rebounding from Covid-19 Lockdowns. The openings were below the 7.9 million that economists expected.

The number of redundancies fell, suggesting that Americans enjoy unusual job security. The number of people ending their jobs increased modestly, but remained below pre-pandemic levels. After waving in 2021 and 2022, the end has fallen when workers lose confidence in their ability to find better wages or working conditions elsewhere.

The work department’s job openings and summary of the labor market (JOLT) showed professionals and company services – a broad category that includes managers and technical workers – scaling down their job postings. Openings also fell in healthcare and social assistance and finance and insurance, but crossed higher in art, entertainment and recreation.

The US labor market has subsided from the crazy employment of 2021-2023. Employers added 186,000 jobs a month in 2024 to November, not bad, but down from 251,000 in 2023, 377,000 in 2022 and a record 604,000 in 2021. When the Labor Department releases its job report for January on Friday, it is expected to show that Hiring slowed down to 160,000 from 256,000, in accordance with a healthy but nonspectacular job market. Unemployment is expected to remain at a low 4.1%.

Employment has remained solid despite high interest rates. In 2022 and 2023, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate 11 times in an attempt to tame inflation. Price pressure has relieved significantly, giving a bold opportunity to turn the course and reduce the rate three times in 2024. But the progress of inflation has stopped in recent months and increases in consumer prices are above the central bank’s 2% target.

President Donald Trump’s plans to Tax Import And deportation immigrants who work in the United States illegally also threaten to revive inflation. Fed has reacted with caution and signaled that it expects to reduce the rates twice this year, down from the four cuts it had projected in September.

“The December Jolts report is in line with Fed’s perception that the labor market is healthy enough to tolerate a more cautious approach to lowering the rates, especially given the uncertainty about customs policy, Nancy Vanden Houten said, the US economist at Oxford Economics led . She added that the report “painted a well -known picture of the labor market, with a low pace in layoffs that kept net job growth positive despite a slow employment.”