A restaurant displays a “Now Hiring” sign amid the coronavirus pandemic in Arlington, Virginia. Companies are still hiring more workers, but not as fast as they were during the summer.
olivier douliery/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
The numbers: Job openings in the U.S. rose slightly in September and layoffs declined, but hiring also slowed in another sign of the labor market cooling off.
What happened: The number of job openings increased to 6.4 million in September from 6.35 million in the prior month.
So-called job separations, including layoffs, slipped to 4.66 million from 4.69 million.
Some 5.87 million people were hired in September, down a bit from 5.95 million in August,
Big picture: The big burst of hiring when the economy reopened in May is over. The economy is still adding jobs, but at a much slower pace, leaving about 10 million people who were working before the pandemic still out of work.
Layoffs have also declined, but more jobs are in danger of being lost the longer the economy has to cope with the coronavirus. A record surge in cases in October has also raised worries that states will reimpose some restrictions again on business.
Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
