Job openings fall sharply in December to 7.6 million, under the forecast

Job openings slipped in December, while hiring, voluntary endings and redundancies held stable, reported the work department on Tuesday.

Available positions tumbled to 7.6 million, the lowest since September and during the Dow Jones stimat for 8 million, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its monthly Job openings and Labor Tabring Survey. The fall left the relationship between open jobs and available workers of 1.1 to 1.

Although the report runs a month behind other job data, the Federal Reserve sees it closely for signs of a slack or tight labor market.

While the net gain in non -yard wages fell in the month by 256,000, the opening level fell by 556,000. As a proportion of the workforce, openings dropped to 4.5%or 0.4 percentage points below November.

Professional and business services experienced a drop of 225,000, while private education and healthcare fell by 194,000, and financial activities fell by 166,000.

The large stock market average increased after the news, while state dividends were mixed when the report showed a relatively healthy labor market when 2024 ended.

Disclaimers amounted to 1.77 million for the month, only 29,000, while hiring pushed up to 5.46 million and also finished a small win to almost 3.2 million. The total separations also moved a little, 5.27 million.

The report comes only a few days ahead of the BLS release of the non -yard payroll for January. It is expected to show an addition of 169,000 jobs, with unemployment that stays stable at 4.1%.

In recent days, Fed Officers have expressed caution about the future path of monetary policy when they see both the impact of a number of interest rates last year as well as fiscal policy involving potential customs against the largest US trading partners. Last week, the central bank chose to keep its benchmark loan -borrowing rate stable by 4.25% to 4.50%, and markets do not expect further reductions until at least June.