[Washington Examiner] The number of job openings in the United States decreased to 8.7 million in October, the lowest that number has been in more than two years.
The new numbers, which include openings across all sectors for that month, were released as part of the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, which was updated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday. The decrease is notable and marks the lowest level of job openings since March 2021.
The monthly decline was much sharper than most economists had anticipated and could be a sign that the labor market is starting to soften a bit under the weight of the Federal Reserve’s high interest rate target. Still, there were some notable positives in the report, according to Nick Bunker, Indeed Hiring Lab’s director of economic research.
"While the number of job openings declined, hiring remained largely unchanged, a sign that the labor market isn’t falling off a cliff," he said. "A decline in openings without a spike in layoffs represents a relatively painless rebalancing between labor supply and labor demand. Yet hiring demand remains robust even with the large decline in October, and openings are up 22% from pre-pandemic levels."
"It is no longer a moderating labor market: It is a market that has moderated," Bunker added. 
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