U.S. job openings rose unexpectedly in November, showing companies are still looking for workers even as the labor market has cooled overall.
Openings rose to 8.1 million in November, the most since February and up from 7.8 million in October, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. They were down from 8.9 million a year earlier and a peak of 12.2 million in March 2022 as the economy was roaring back from COVID-19 lockdowns. But they still exceed pre-pandemic levels.
Economists had expected job openings to fall slightly in November.
Layoffs rose slightly in November, and the number of people quitting their jobs fell, suggesting that Americans are less confident in their ability to find better jobs elsewhere.
Openings were up in professional and business services, a broad category that includes managerial and technical workers, and in finance and insurance. They fell in the information industry, which includes publishers and telecommunications companies.
The American labor market has cooled from the red hot hiring of 2021-2023. Employers added 180,000 jobs a month in 2024 through 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 December hiring numbers on Friday, they’re expected to show that companies, government agencies and nonprofit organizations added nearly 157,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate remained at a low 4.2%.