Number of US Job Openings Falls to Lowest Level in 3 Years

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Statistics published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday show that job openings in April were at their lowest level since 2021, Newsweek reports.

The number of job openings fell by nearly 300,000 to about 8.06 million between March and April, a situation which analysts say indicates a return to normal US job opening levels following the pandemic.

April saw 23,000 new hires but this figure represents 311,000 fewer new hires on a yearly basis, Newsweek noted. There were 1.8 million fewer job openings in April than there were at the same time last year, the Bureau of Labor statistics show.

“The American jobs market was hit hard during the pandemic as millions of workers lost work amid lockdown rules that brought the economy down to a halt and pushed the unemployment rate to nearly 15 percent,” Newsweek economy reporter Omar Mohammed noted in his report. “The reopening of the economy sparked hiring and created job opportunities across the labor market, sending employees scrambling for talent which helped push up wages and offering workers the ability to choose the kind of work they wanted to do.”

“But amid soaring inflation and the Federal Reserve hiking rates to slow price increases, there are signs that the labor market is moving away from the volatility of the post-pandemic period, economists say,” Mohammed reported.

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