U.S. Job Openings Jumped at End of Last Year

Job openings are down from a peak of 11.9 million last March, but they are still historically high and exceed December’s 5.7 million unemployed workers looking for work by a ratio of nearly two to one. Jobs site Indeed estimated there were 10.1 million job openings in mid-January.

Layoffs increased to a seasonally adjusted 1.5 million in December from 1.4 million the prior month, the Labor Department said. Though still below prepandemic levels, December layoffs were more than 15% higher than in the same month a year earlier, when there were 1.3 million layoffs. December layoffs were driven by job cuts in infrastructure, business services and hospitality industries.

A growing list of companies has recently announced job cuts or hiring freezes, though some businesses are still hiring and jobless claims remain historically low.

FedEx Corp.

Chief Executive

Raj Subramaniam

said Wednesday in a memo to employees it is laying off more than 10% of its officer and director ranks.

“The labor market is still incredibly tight, but households have started to respond to these incredibly high prices and are starting to trade down,” said

Beth Ann Bovino,

chief U.S. economist at S&P Global. She added that “means revenues might soften, and then businesses won’t need to hire as many workers.”

The number of times workers quit their jobs declined slightly to 4.1 million in the same month. Work quits have been elevated and above 4 million since June 2021.

The December increase in job openings was driven by food services, retail trade, and construction, while the biggest decline was seen in the information industry.

The U.S. labor market remains solid but lost momentum late last year as payrolls notched their smallest gain in two years. Worker pay and benefit gains cooled in the fourth quarter.

Other figures point to a slowing U.S. economy as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to slow demand and bring down still-high inflation. Fed officials are likely to raise their benchmark federal-funds rate on Wednesday by a quarter percentage point to a range between 4.5% and 4.75%.

Consumer spending has started to sputter. The housing market, a sector sensitive to interest rates, has weakened. Businesses have pulled back on investment. Economists remain concerned the U.S. could enter a recession this year.

The labor market’s slowdown has been more pronounced in industries sensitive to interest rates such as technology and finance, though layoffs have spread to other parts of the economy. Consumer and industrial goods maker

3M Co.

last week said it is cutting 2,500 manufacturing jobs globally, and toy maker

Hasbro Inc.

said it would eliminate 15% of its global workforce this year.

The Labor Department reports on Friday the number of jobs employers added in January, along with average hourly earnings and the unemployment rate for that month.

Corporate job openings at Main Line Health, a hospital system of about 13,000 employees in the Philadelphia area, have gotten filled quickly in recent weeks, said Pam Teufel, senior vice president of human resources.

“For jobs like compensation manager, for example, we’d get no applicants that were qualified, then all of a sudden, we’re now getting about a dozen and I do think that’s from the result of folks being laid off in other companies,” Ms. Teufel said.

She added that while hiring has gotten easier for those positions, it still remains difficult hiring nurses and other healthcare workers.

Write to Bryan Mena at bryan.mena@wsj.com