WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. job openings decreased in October, but remained significantly high, pointing to continued labor market resilience despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to cool demand by aggressively raising interest rates.
Job openings, a measure of labor demand, decreased 353,000 to 10.3 million on the last day of October, the Labor Department said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Wednesday.
Last month’s job openings were in line with economists’ expectations. The Fed has raised its policy rate by 375 basis points this year from near zero to a 3.75%-4.00% range in what has become the fastest rate-hiking cycle since the 1980s.
The U.S. central bank is trying to dampen demand for labor to put downward pressure on inflation.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)