Job openings are down 288,000 to 7.192 million in March at a seasonally adjusted rate after a downward revision to 7.480 million in February. The February level is below the consensus of 7.464 million in the Econoday survey of forecasters. The job openings rate declines to 4.3 in March from 4.5 in February.
Job openings are down 229,000 in private industries and 59,000 in government. Massive cuts in federal employment is not yet visible in the unemployment numbers, but reductions and shuttering of various agencies and departments means fewer job openings. Private industries are seeing weakness in the housing sector with 38,000 fewer jobs in construction and 39,000 in real estate and rental and leasing. Consumer facing sectors are also seeing fewer job openings with decreases of 45,000 in leisure and hospitality, 13,000 in retail trade, and 15,000 in transportation, warehousing, and utilities. There are falling numbers of jobs with 21,000 in professional and business services, and 61,000 in private education and health services.

Hiring is up a modest 41,000 in March with 30,000 in private industries and 11,000 in government. Government hiring was at the state and local level with an increase of 13,000. Broad-based modest increases across private industries more than offset a few big declines. Construction hiring is down 45,000 and professional and business services is down 43,000. Leisure and hospitality is up 48,000, private education and health services is up 36,000, and financial activities is up 28,000. The uptick in hiring likely reflects an opportunity for those businesses that have had trouble finding workers with the right experience and/or skills to hire when labor supply is more plentiful.

Job separations are down 179,000 to 5.137 million in March with private industry separations down 174,000 and government down 5,000. There are large declines in separations of 43,000 in retail trade, 41,000 in leisure and hospitality, 37,000 in transportation, warehousing, and utilities, and 53,000 in professional and business services. The decrease indicates that a couple of industries that were previously seeing restructuring in particular retail have made their initial adjustments to staffing after closing or consolidating operations.

Job quits a subset of separations are up 82,000 to 3.332 million in March with private industry up 91,000 and government down 10,000. Although there are fewer job openings, there may be a small increase in voluntary job changing as some workers look for greater job security or decide that the labor market is more favorable than it will be in the near future. Quits are up 55,000 for leisure and hospitality, 45,000 for private education and health services, and 24,000 for financial activities. Quits are down 17,000 in construction where the housing sector has slowed.

Layoffs and discharges also a subset of separations are down 222,000 in March to 1.558 million. Private industry layoffs are down 229,000 and government are up 7,000. A large share of the layoffs are from 66,000 in retail and 79,000 in leisure and hospitality.

Overall, the data on job openings and labor turnover (JOLTS) in March suggests that the current labor market is adjusting to sectoral conditions, but not deteriorating on a broader scale.

Job openings are seen down at 7.464 million in March after declining to 7.568 million in February from 7.762 million in January as employers are pulling back amid rising business uncertainty.

The Labor Department's JOLTS report tracks monthly change in job openings and offers rates on hiring and quits. The reporting period lags other employment data including the employment situation report. The word JOLTS stands for Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.

Although lagging the release timing of the employment situation report by a month, JOLTS provides additional information on the labor market. The payroll survey in the employment situation report provides numbers on net job changes. JOLTS breaks down labor market data into pre-net changes such as job openings, hires, and separations.