The American job openings in February slip to 7.6 million things by showing the deceleration labor market

By Paul Wiseman, writer AP Economics

Washington (AP) – Employers posted 7.6 million job opening in February, a sign that the job market slows down but remains healthy. Federal workers’ layoffs reached the highest level since the COVVI-19 pandemic criticized the economy in 2020, while Elon Musk’s employment cuts begin to appear in national job data.

The number of vacant posts fell slightly from a revision of 7.8 million in January and 8.4 million a year earlier, the Labor Department reported on Tuesday. The openings dropped more or less regularly from the peak at 12.1 million in March 2022, when the economy still roared COVVI-19 locking.

The layoffs reached 1.8 million in February, against 1.7 million in January. Federal agencies have dismissed 18,000 workers, most of them since October 2020. Retailers, cautious about the prospects of 2025, have dismissed 238,000 in February, the largest figure since April 2020 in the depths of the COVVI-19 recession.

Job offers from the Labor Department and the summary of the work -bearing showed that the overall number of people are leaving their jobs – a sign of confidence that they can find better conditions of remuneration or work elsewhere – have dropped slightly in February.

The American labor market has proven to be surprisingly lasting. But he clearly lost the impetus of the full days of hiring of 2021-2023. And the prospects for hiring are cloudy while President Donald Trump continues trade wars, purges the federal workforce and promises to deport millions of immigrants working illegally in the United States.

It started to have an impact on the optimism that Americans have on the labor market and the economy. At the end of last month, the University of Michigan published its update survey on consumer feelings for Mars, which showed a sharp drop in the perspectives of Americans for the economy. The investigation also revealed an increasing anxiety on inflation and jobs.

Economists fear that Trump’s trade wars – it should announce radical prices on American trade partners on Wednesday – will increase the prices and crushes economic growth.

“The job market remains the bulwark of the economy, and although it slows slowly, it does not show cracks which prefigure the recession,” said Robert Frick, economist of the Navy Federal Credit Union, in a report of comments on the job openings. “The way this is to attack the effects of tariffs on consumers and businesses is the crucial question, and a question that will not answer until later this year.”

Friday, the Labor Department publishes the job report for March. According to a survey of forecasters of the Factseet data company, he should show that employers added 125,000 jobs last month, against 151,000 in February and on average 168,000 per month in 2024. The unemployment rate should stick to 4.2%.

Originally published: April 1, 2025 at 8:48 a.m.