US Job Openings Fall to Lowest Since 2021 in Broad Cooldown

US job openings fell in April to the lowest level in over three years, consistent with a gradual slowdown in the labor market.

Available positions decreased to 8.06 million from a downwardly revised 8.36 million reading in the prior month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, known as JOLTS, showed Tuesday. The figure was below all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

The decline helped lower a ratio closely watched by the Federal Reserve — the number of vacancies per unemployed worker — to the lowest level in nearly three years.

The pullback ...