Job openings unexpectedly rose in the first month that a wide swath of President Trump's tariffs went into effect.
After hovering near a four-year low in March, new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed 7.39 million jobs open at the end of April, an increase from the 7.2 million seen the month prior. The data comes as investors closely watch for signs that economic growth may be slowing further.
The March figure was revised higher from the 7.19 million open jobs initially reported. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected Tuesday's report to show 7.1 million openings in April. The April survey included data from the period immediately following Trump's announcement of steep reciprocal tariffs for a host of countries. Those were put on a 90-day pause on April 9, with 10% baseline tariffs remaining in effect. The data doesn't include any reaction to the US-China tariff pause in May.
“A rise in job openings at the end of April shows labor demand is far from collapsing in the wake of policy uncertainty, but the modest gain still leaves openings declining on trend,” Wells Fargo senior economist Sarah House wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday. “Turnover remains subdued as businesses await more clarity on the outlook and workers await more job opportunities.”
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) also showed that 5.57 million hires were made during the month, up slightly from the 5.4 million made during March. The hiring rate ticked up to 3.5% from 3.4%. In one sign that workers may be getting more cautious about labor market conditions, the quits rate, a sign of confidence among workers, moved down slightly to 2% from 2.1% in March.
Both the hiring and quits rates are hovering near decade lows, reflecting what economists have described as a labor market in “stasis.” Wolfe Research chief economist Stephanie Roth told Yahoo Finance that the slight tick down in quits in April shows “at the margin, a cooling off economy.”
The latest JOLTs data comes as market participants continue to closely watch economic data for any signs that Trump's tariff escalation is weighing on growth data. In April, tariffs appeared to have minimal impact on the headline labor market numbers as the US economy added 177,000 nonfarm payrolls while the unemployment rate held flat at 4.2%.
Economists don't expect Friday's May jobs report to show significant signs of cooling either. Consensus expects a modest higher slowdown with nonfarm payroll additions projected to fall to 130,000 in May while the unemployment rate once again held flat at 4.2%.
