WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. job openings jumped in April as the labor market looked resilient despite economic uncertainty caused by the Iran war.
U.S. employers posted 7.6 million job vacancies in April, the Labor Department reported Tuesday, up from 6.9 million in March and most since May 2024. Economists had forecast just 6.8 million openings.
The department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) showed that layoffs fell but so did the number of Americans quitting their jobs – a sign of confidence in their prospects. And the report’s measure of gross hiring also dropped in April, suggesting that companies remain reluctant to add new workers even as they hold on to the ones they have.
The American job market has been recovering from a dismal 2025. Last year, companies, nonprofits and government agencies added fewer than 10,000 jobs a month, least outside a recession since 2002.
This year has been better — job growth averaged 76,000 a month from January through April. Big tax refunds — the product of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax cut bill last year — have given the economy a lift this year, offsetting the impact of sharply higher energy prices since the United States and Israel attacked Iran Feb. 28. But the refunds have mostly been paid out and are fading as an economic booster.
The United States also doesn’t need as many new jobs as it used to. Trump’s immigration crackdown and Baby Boomer retirements mean that fewer people are competing for work. As a result, the so-called break-even point — the number of new jobs needed every month to keep the unemployment rate stable — has dropped to near zero from 155,000 a month two or three years ago, according to an April report by Federal Reserve economists Seth Murray and Ivan Vidangos.
On Friday, the Labor Department will issue its job report for May. The numbers are expected to show that employers added 100,000 jobs last month, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet. The unemployment rate is expected to have stayed at a low 4.3%.
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