U.S. employers ramped up their job postings in September as stronger economic growth may be encouraging more hiring. Yet voters are headed to the polls Tuesday largely gloomy over an economy beset by higher prices.
U.S. job openings jumped to 7.5 million from a revised 7.19 million in August, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. It is the largest number of openings since May and up from a recent low of 6.9 million in March.
The department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) also showed that gross hiring — job gains before subtracting people who quit or lost jobs — rose and layoffs fell in September.
The increases are a hopeful sign that hiring could improve, but the trend would have to continue for several months to suggest real progress. Hiring has been sluggish for nearly three years, though layoffs have also been historically low, a sign of meager “churn” in the labor market. Low churn means those who are employed are enjoying relatively high levels of job security, but it is much harder than normal for those looking for work to find a job.
Still, the number of job openings now exceeds the number of unemployed, a sharp switch from a year ago when there were more people out of work than available jobs.
“It’s an encouraging sign that despite all the headwinds right now with high diesel and gas prices and ongoing inflation problems, companies are slowly increasing their hiring,” Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said.
Job openings rose the most in professional and business services, which includes high-paying jobs in engineering and accounting, as well as jobs in the temp industry. Manufacturers, shipping firms, and state and local governments also advertised for more workers.
Nicole Bachaud, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter, cautioned that with inflation still high and interest rates having increased since the summer, companies may not be able to ramp up hiring by much in the coming months.
“All of that added up together just makes it much more expensive to operate as a business and much more expensive to expand,” she said. “And so that will likely continue to be a downward pressure on hiring, until we see inflation really able to cool down.”
The government will issue the October jobs report on Friday, which is forecast to show that employers added 65,000 positions last month, according to data provider FactSet. That would be an improvement from 29,000 in September. The unemployment rate is expected to stay at a low 4.2%.
Typically, job gains of just 65,000 would be seen as a sign of a struggling economy, but with the giant baby boom generation retiring and immigration sharply reduced, the economy doesn’t need to generate as many jobs as it has in the past for unemployment to remain low.
In September, layoffs fell sharply to just 1.64 million, the fewest since March 2025. The number of people quitting their jobs rose to 3.37 million, the highest in about 18 months, and up from 3.04 million.
The rise in quits is generally a good sign because workers usually leave a job when they either have another lined up or when they are confident they can find new work.
Rugaber writes for the Associated Press.
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