US job openings fall, hiring rises in mixed report

The Labor Department said Tuesday that job postings fell 2.9 percent to just under a seasonally adjusted 5 million in March. Meanwhile, total hiring ticked up 1.1 percent to 5.1 million, the most since December.

The number of people quitting their jobs rose to 2.78 million, roughly matching February's total, which was the highest in nearly seven years. More quits are a good sign because workers typically quit when they have a new job, usually at higher pay.

The figures underscore that lackluster job gains overall in March reflected a temporary slowdown. Employers during the month added the fewest jobs since June 2012, and the economy likely contracted in the first three months of the year. The data has raised concerns that the economy was slipping into a new phase of sluggish growth.

Instead, businesses ramped up hiring in April and added 223,000 jobs, according to last week's jobs report.

The figures reported Friday are a net figure: Jobs gained minus jobs lost. The data reported Tuesday, in the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, are more detailed. They calculate total hires, as well as quits and layoffs. Tuesday's numbers also reflect data for March, and are a month behind last week's jobs report.

The JOLTs report provides some clues about what happened in March when net hiring fell so sharply. Overall hiring increased that month, but layoffs soared 6.2 percent to nearly 1.8 million. That increase in job cuts is a major reason that net hiring fell.

The biggest jump in layoffs occurred in the Midwest, where the oil and gas industry have shed thousands of jobs. A slowdown in manufacturing has also increased layoffs. Factory production has fallen because of the strong dollar, which makes U.S. exports more expensive.