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Key Takeaways
- According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of job openings decreased in March due to a continued cooling of the job market.
- Businesses may be growing more reluctant to hire as President Donald Trump's rapid-fire announcements of tariffs have stoked uncertainty about the future.
- In one way, the uncertainty has helped workers: layoffs are low because businesses have been reluctant in letting go of their current workforce in case economic conditions improve.
It was harder to find a job last March, even before President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day Tariffs” shook up hiring markets.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday that the number of job vacancies fell to 7.2 millions from a downwardly-revised 7.5 million in march. According to a Dow Jones Newswires/The Wall Street Journal survey of economists, this was less than the 7.5 million predicted jobs. The number of layoffs has fallen to 1.6m from 1.8m in February.
The BLS’s earlier jobs report showed a healthy market expansion. The report on Tuesday added further detail. However, the decreasing number of openings for jobs suggested a brewing weakness before President Donald Trump’s announcements on tariffs in April, which sourred job creation prospects in the months ahead.
Trump’s tariffs, including the 145% tariff rate on most Chinese products, could damage businesses enough to affect a labor market which has remained resilient in the post-pandemic period. The Trump administration’s federal job cuts and the ongoing crackdown against immigration could also impact the job market over the next few months.
“The disruption caused by the announcement—and a still-elevated tariff rate on most goods from China—is likely to lead some businesses to slam on the hiring brakes,” Cory Stahle, economist for the hiring lab of job hunting site Indeed, wrote in a commentary. “When paired together with continued federal cuts in employment and spending as well as labor supply challenges that could arise from tighter migration policy, the risks of more substantial and rapid declines are growing.”
The decrease in job vacancies meant that there was only one job per unemployed worker. It is the lowest number of jobs available in nearly four year.
Economists said uncertainty about trade policy, stoked by Trump's frequent import tax announcements, is holding back hiring, although it could also be discouraging businesses from layoffs, at least for the time being.
"The push and pull has left the labor market in a fragile stasis that makes it vulnerable to being knocked off balance should the deteriorating outlook for growth come to fruition," Sarah House and Nicole Cervi, economists at Wells Fargo Securities, wrote in a commentary.
