U.S. Layoffs Jumped in March as Job Openings Fell
Tech, finance and other white-collar industries have cooled in recent months. Photo: Ismail Ferdous/Bloomberg News By Gwynn Guilford May 2, 2023 10:38 am ET U.S. layoffs rose sharply in March and job openings dropped, in signs that demand for workers is cooling a year after the Federal Reserve began lifting interest rates to combat inflation. Layoffs rose to a seasonally adjusted 1.8 million in March from the prior month from a revised 1.6 million in February, the Labor Department said Tuesday. The increase was led by job losses in construction, leisure and hospitality and healthcare industries—sectors that have driven job growth in recent months as tech, finance and other white-collar industries cooled. Employers also reported a seasonally adjusted 9.6 million job openings in M
Tech, finance and other white-collar industries have cooled in recent months.
Photo: Ismail Ferdous/Bloomberg News
U.S. layoffs rose sharply in March and job openings dropped, in signs that demand for workers is cooling a year after the Federal Reserve began lifting interest rates to combat inflation.
Layoffs rose to a seasonally adjusted 1.8 million in March from the prior month from a revised 1.6 million in February, the Labor Department said Tuesday. The increase was led by job losses in construction, leisure and hospitality and healthcare industries—sectors that have driven job growth in recent months as tech, finance and other white-collar industries cooled.
Employers also reported a seasonally adjusted 9.6 million job openings in March, the Labor Department said, a decrease from a revised 10 million openings in February.
Openings reached their lowest level since April 2021 and are down sharply from the record 12 million recorded last March. But they remain well above levels before the pandemic and exceed the 5.8 million unemployed people looking for work in March.
“You’ve got a slowing economy and what that means is there’s less and less demand for jobs,” said Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington Trust Investment Advisors. “But the overall dynamic out there is that businesses are still hungry to hire.”
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Subscribe NowLayoffs are approaching prepandemic levels. Companies have announced high-profile job-cuts in recent months, including Facebook parent Meta Platforms, Google Parent Alphabet and .
The March openings and layoffs report is among the last major releases ahead of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy committee meeting Tuesday and Wednesday. Officials are likely to increase interest rates again this week while debating whether that will be enough to then pause the fastest rate-raising cycle in 40 years. The benchmark federal-funds rate is currently at a range between 4.75% and 5%.
The Fed has aggressively raised rates over the past year to slow the labor market and overall economy and bring down high inflation.
Write to Gwynn Guilford at [email protected]
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