Fed Gets Good News In JOLTS Release, But It’s Not Enough

The Fed caught a rare break ahead of the May FOMC decision when the BLS's JOLTS report showed job openings slipped to a three-year low at "just" 8.488 million as of the last business day of March. That was fewer than expected and down 325,000 from the prior month's revised level. It counted as the largest month-to-month decline since October. Hires, meanwhile, fell the most since February of 2023, leaving the gap only marginally lower. At the margins, the main aggregates (openings and hires