U.S. employers posted far fewer jobs in November than the previous month, a sign that employers aren’t yet ramping up hiring even as growth has picked up.
Businesses and government agencies posted 7.1 million open jobs at the end of November, the Labor Department said Wednesday, down from 7.4 million in October. Layoffs also dropped, however, as companies appear to be holding onto workers even as they are reluctant to add staff.
The report suggests that the “low-hire, low-fire” job market remains in effect, with workers enjoying some job security, but those out of work struggling to find new jobs. The moribund labor market stands in contrast with data showing solid economic growth, which topped 4% at an annual rate in last year’s July-September quarter, the latest data available. Economists forecast growth slowed but remained solid in the final three months of 2025.
A key question for this year is whether hiring will pick up to match healthy growth, or whether sluggish job gains will eventually drag down the economy. There is a third possibility: Automation and artificial intelligence could enable steady economic growth without creating many jobs.
The number of postings in November was the fewest since September 2024. But outside that month, it was the lowest in nearly five years.
Open jobs in November fell sharply in shipping and warehousing, restaurants and hotels, and in state and local government. They rose in retail and construction.
The number of Americans who quit their jobs ticked higher in November, which is seen as a good sign, because workers typically quit when they are more confident they can find a better job, or already have one. Yet quits remained historically low, at 3.16 million, up from just under 3 million in October.
The figures provide some critical measures of the job market after last fall’s government shutdown delayed the release of data on hiring and inflation. Wednesday’s report is known as the job openings and labor turnover survey, or JOLTS, and provides key insights into the state of hiring and firing.
Separately, payroll provider ADP said Wednesday that businesses added 41,000 jobs in December, an improvement after they shed 29,000 positions in November. ADP’s report is based on anonymous payroll records the company maintains for 26 million employees.
Small firms — with fewer than 50 workers — added 9,000 jobs, an encouraging reversal after they shed jobs in previous months. Smaller firms have been hard-hit by President Donald Trump’s tariffs, with less ability to absorb or pass on the costs compared with larger companies, economists say.
“It is a slower labor market,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP. “The labor market isn’t falling off a cliff. We still see some job growth, and we don’t see an uptick in layoffs.”
The Bank of America Institute, which tracks changes in the number of paychecks landing in its customers’ accounts, said it saw signs that hiring picked up in December. Job gains rose to 0.6% in December, compared with a year earlier, up from just 0.2% in November.
“It does look like, in our data, that the worst of the slowdown could be behind us,” David Tinsley, senior economist at Bank of America Institute, said in a call with reporters.
It’s not quite true that the U.S. now has a “low-hire, low-fire” labor market, as economists often remark. What’s more accurate to say is that businesses are barely creating more jobs than they destroy.
The November report on U.S. job openings shows this unusual state of affairs in the labor market.
New hires in November totaled 5.12 million, compared with 5.08 million separations — that is, layoffs, job quitters, retirements, deaths, and so forth.
The huge U.S. economy, in fact, creates and destroys millions of jobs every month in both the best and worst of times. What matters most is whether it adds more jobs than it eliminates.
Right now, the labor market seems to be treading water.
The exceedingly small gap between hires and separations illustrates just how weak the labor market has gotten since the spring. The economy is barely adding net new workers.
The weakness of the labor market was also evident in U.S. job openings. They fell by 300,000 in November to 7.15 million, and were at the second-lowest level since the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report is two months old, but more recent surveys suggest there has been little improvement in the labor market. The Federal Reserve’s biggest worry about the economy is a rising unemployment rate.
The Fed wants to prevent any further deterioration in the labor market, and it has already cut interest rates three times since September to try to prop it up.
Almost all the new job openings were in retail, warehouses, and transportation — basically the package-delivery system for online sales.
Almost every other major industry showed fewer job openings in November.
The percentage of job quitters remained near a post-pandemic low, reflecting how hard it has become to find a job. Fewer people quit when they can’t be sure they can find other work.
The economy is hardly creating any new jobs — the residue of a tumultuous year marked by soaring U.S. tariffs, major government layoffs, a crackdown on immigration, and growing use of artificial intelligence.
The saving grace is a relatively low level of layoffs. Although the unemployment rate has risen, it’s still extremely low at 4.6%.
Economists predict hiring will gradually recover in 2026, but the labor market is likely to remain weak for a while.
“For many workers, the labor market has effectively become a game of musical chairs where the music has stopped, and everyone is simply staying in the seat they have,” said Cory Stahle, senior economist at Indeed Hiring Lab.
“Without a healthy churn of workers moving to better opportunities, the [labor] market is losing the dynamism that typically drives wage growth and economic momentum.”