US job openings fall more than expected in November
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Wednesday 07 Jan 2026
(Sharecast News) - US job openings fell more than expected in November, according to figures released on Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The BLS' Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, showed there were 7.1m job openings, down from 7.4m in October and below economists' expectations of 7.6m. The figure for October was revised down by 221,000.
Over the year, the number of job openings was down by 885,000.
Job openings fell by 148,000 in accommodation and food services, by 108,000 in transportation, warehousing, and utilities and by 63,000 in wholesale trade. In construction, job openings rose by 90,000 in November.
ING economist James Knightley said the large dip in job openings was surprising but that with the lay-off rate falling to 1.1% from 1.2% and the quit rate ticking up to 2% from 1.9%, "it is all fully consistent with the low hire/low fire economy that was also illustrated earlier today with the ADP private payrolls report posting a 41,000 increase in employment in December".
He added: "For reference, the consensus for Friday's non-farm payrolls report has ticked a little higher to 70k over the past week. This would leave payrolls growth trending around the 40k mark for the past six months - in line with the ADP report.
"So again it is a cooling, rather than collapsing jobs market. 10Y yields have ticked a couple of basis points higher on the back of these reports, but it hasn't really done anything to turn around the slight risk-off attitude in markets today. Markets are still happy pricing 60bp of Fed rate cuts this year."
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