Investing.com - U.S. job openings in December decreased by more than anticipated, although hiring remained resilient, in a possible sign of a slowly cooling labor market.
Job openings, a gauge of labor demand, dipped by 556,000 to 7.6 million as of the last business day of the month, according to the Labor Department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Tuesday.
Economists had anticipated a reading of 8.010 million. The data for November was revised to 8.156 million from its earlier level of 8.098 million.
Meanwhile, the number of hires came in at 5.462 million, compared with 5.373 million in November. Layoffs were also little changed at 1.8 million. The U.S. labor market has been buoyed by a relatively subdued amount of layoffs, although companies have been somewhat reluctant to bring on new workers following a spree of hiring in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The JOLTS numbers make up part of a stream of labor market figures due out this week, including the all-important January nonfarm payrolls report on Friday. The U.S. economy is tipped to have added 154,000 roles, down from 256,000 in the prior month, while the unemployment rate is seen matching December's pace of 4.1%.
In January, the Federal Reserve chose to leave interest rates unchanged at a range of 4.25% to 4.5%, pushing pause of a series of recent borrowing cost reductions. The central bank also signaled that it would take a wait-and-see approach to further cuts due to signs of a steady labor market and broader uncertainty around the impact of policy changes under the new Trump administration.