US job openings fell in February, suggesting the labour market was losing momentum even before stringent measures to control the novel coronavirus outbreak shuttered businesses, throwing millions out of work.
That was underscored by another report on Tuesday showing a sharp decline in the share of small businesses planning to increase employment in March. The reports came in the wake of data last week showing the economy shed 701,000 jobs in March. The unemployment rate shot up 0.9 percentage point, the most since January 1975, to 4.4 percent in March.
With 10 million people filing for unemployment benefits in the last two weeks of March and millions more expected to have submitted claims last week, economists are expecting payrolls to sink by at least a record 20 million in April and the jobless rate to top 10%.
"The economy would be lucky to just be in a recession right now instead of what is looking more and more like the twilight zone of depression if Washington policymakers aren't careful," said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York.
Job openings, a measure of labour demand, decreased 130,000 to 6.9 million, the Labour Department said in its monthly Job Openings and Labour Turnover Survey, or JOLTS. Vacancies peaked at 7.5 million in January 2019. The job openings rate slipped to 4.3% in February from 4.4% in January.
The decline in job openings was led by real estate and rental and leasing, and information industries. But there were 927,000 vacancies in the leisure and hospitality industry, with 783,000 of them at hotels, bars and restaurants.
Retailers had 727,000 job openings in February. None of these vacancies likely exist now, with entire industries virtually closed.
Hiring was little changed at 5.9 million in February, keeping the hiring rate at 3.9% for a third straight month.