A flurry of new job postings

June 2, 2026

Job openings rose in April to nearly a two-year high, beating expectations for a no-change report. The number of jobs available jumped to 7.6 million, up from 6.9 million in March. A year ago, the number was in between at 7.1 million. That’s all according to the government’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS).

The ratio of job openings to unemployed job seekers, a measure of balance in the labor market tracked closely by the Federal Reserve, reached 1.0 in April, up slightly from 0.95 in March. The ratio has oscillated between 0.9 and 1.0 over the past 12 months, pointing to a stable market.

The upswing in job openings in April favored professional and business services with a 668,000 gain. That is a record increase for the data series, which began in 2000.

Hires and quits both declined while layoffs fell. The hiring rate slipped to 3.2% from 3.5% in March. On a three-month moving average basis (which smooths out some of the noise in the data), hiring came in flat at 3.3% for the ninth straight month. 

Layoffs slipped to 1.1% from 1.2%. The three-month moving average stood at 1.1%, the same as the prior two months.

Quits edged lower to 1.9% from 2.0%, the lowest since 2020 but otherwise steady over the last two years. Quits have been hovering between 1.9% and 2.1% for two years on a three-month moving average basis. The Labor Leverage Ratio, a proxy for worker bargaining power, moved higher in April but it is little changed over the last 12 months. 

The number of advertised job postings declined in May after a flat April; that data is from the jobs site Indeed.

The lack of turnover in the labor market overall is reflected in a bottoming out of wage gains. Pay growth for job changers stood at 6.6% in April, the same as March.