Job Openings Were Scarcer In November

For the first time in four years, unemployed people significantly outnumbered job openings in November as the job market continued to deteriorate.

U.S. employers had 7.1 million job openings in November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday. That was a decrease from 7.4 million in October, the fewest since September 2024, and below the 7.6 million openings forecasters had expected, according to a survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. There was less than one job for every unemployed worker, with the ratio slipping to 0.9 from 1:1 in September. It was the lowest ratio since 2021.

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey data added detail to a BLS report last month showing the unemployment rate rose to a four-year high in November as employers cut back on hiring. Uncertainty about tariffs, President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration, and the adoption of artificial intelligence software have all taken a toll on the labor market, although employers have mostly avoided mass layoffs so far.

“Today’s report is another signal that the job market lacks dynamism but isn’t completely breaking down,” Ali Jaffery, an economist at CIBC, wrote in a commentary. “The pace of hiring is slow, but firms are still not comfortable firing either.”

Data from Wednesday’s report, alongside a highly anticipated report on the job market due Friday, will likely be scrutinized by officials at the Federal Reserve later in the month when they meet to set the nation’s monetary policy. The Fed has cut its key interest rate at its last three meetings in an effort to prevent the job market slowdown from becoming a severe increase in unemployment.