Job Openings Slide to Lowest in More Than 2 Years as Labor Market Cooling Continues

In a fresh sign of labor market cooling, the number of job openings in the country has dropped to a two-and-a-half year low as America’s manufacturing sector extends its decline.
The Labor Department’s latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), released on Dec. 5, shows that job openings fell to 8.7 million as of the last day of October. This is the lowest level since March 2021 and well below market estimates of around 9.4 million.
“That’s a monthly decline of 617,000 jobs, a sharper-than-expected drop,” Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.
The number of job openings has been on a declining trend since hitting a record 12.0 million in March 2022. That’s when the Federal Reserve embarked on a feverish pace of raising interest rates in order to quash soaring inflation….