Washington (Reuters) – The hot labor market in the United States is showing slight signs of cooling: the number of job vacancies – a measure of the demand for staff – fell slightly.
This key figure, which is also important for the Federal Reserve, fell to 8.863 million at the end of January, as the US Department of Labor announced on Wednesday in its monthly survey (Jolts). Experts polled by Reuters had expected 8.900 million. However, the previous month’s value was revised relatively significantly downwards to 8.889 million from the originally reported 9.026 million.
The government’s labor market report for February is due this Friday. Economists are expecting job growth of 200,000, after 353,000 in January.
The US Federal Reserve wants to use a tight monetary policy line to dampen price increases and cool down the labor market. Since the beginning of 2022, it has raised key interest rates from close to zero to a range of 5.25 to 5.50 percent, but has recently paused several times. Experts expect it to remain silent at the next meeting on March 20, especially since Fed Chairman Jerome Powell once again signaled a wait-and-see attitude.
(Report by Lucia Mutikani, written by Reinhard Becker, edited by Ralf Bode. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at [email protected])