Are Jobs Back? Openings Surged To Two-Year High In April

Updated June 02, 2026

11:43 AM EDT

Key Takeaways

• The U.S. economy had more job openings in April than forecasters had expected, and the most since 2024.
• The data suggests the labor market is improving after languishing in a low-hiring, low-firing mode for the last year.
• The optimistic outlook came with a major caveat because the JOLTS data is frequently revised.

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U.S. employers had 7.6 million job openings in April, the most since March 2024, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday.12 That was up from 6.9 million in March, and higher than the 6.9 million forecasters had expected according to a survey of economists at Dow Jones NewswiresandThe Wall Street Journal.3

The new data on job openings and labor turnover added detail to the bureau's payroll report released last month, which showed unexpectedly high levels of job creation, suggesting the labor market is staying resilient through headwinds from tariffs and the Iran war.

What This Means For The Economy

An uptick in job openings is a good sign for job creation in the coming months, and points to the job market stabilizing after being dragged down by tariffs last year.

“It’s still a low-hire, low-fire job market. Workers are job clinging and not eager to leave. But there are signs of improvement," Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, wrote in a commentary.

There were a few blips in the data, which was mostly sunny for job-seekers. Employers hired 5.1 million in April, down from 5.5 million in March. And 3 million quit, down from 3.2 million in March, suggesting workers had fewer opportunities to leave their current jobs for better ones.

Figures from the Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey are often revised significantly after the fact, so the surge of job openings could prove to be a statistical mirage.

"Job seekers now can be hopeful that the April bump in job openings will translate to more hiring, but because today’s data is subject to revision and because a job listing doesn’t always end in a job offer, they should stay sharp and prepare for a continued search," Elizabeth Renter, senior economist at NerdWallet, wrote in a commentary.

Related Education

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Understanding JOLTS: U.S. Job Vacancies and Labor Turnover Insights](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/j/jolts.asp) [

Full Employment: Definition, Types, and Examples](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fullemployment.asp)

Still, there were 1.03 jobs for every unemployed person, the first time that ratio has been above 1 since June, indicating the balance of the labor market is slowly tilting back towards workers.4 Hiring is regaining some steam after dragging in 2025, as tariff-related uncertainty and immigration restrictions pushed down both demand and supply for labor.

Job openings and the ratio between unemployed workers and openings are one of the key data points officials at the Federal Reserve consider when setting monetary policy to pursue the central bank's dual mandate of keeping prices stable and employment high.

The increase in job openings is a signal that the job market is healthy, meaning there's less pressure on the Fed to lower interest rates to boost the economy. It even gives them more breathing room to raise rates to stifle inflation, which is rising because of the Iran war's energy crunch. Fed officials are widely expected to keep the key fed funds rate flat when the policy committee next meets later this month.

Before that meeting, the Fed will get a fresher look at the labor market on Friday, when the bureau publishes hiring and unemployment data for May.

**Update, June 2, 2026—**This article has been updated after publication with more detail about the JOLTS report and commentary from economists. It was first published June 2, 2026.

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1. Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary."
2. Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey." Select data from drop-down menus and download spreadsheets.
3. MarketWatch. "U.S. Economic Calendar."
4. Bureau of Labor Satistics via Federal Reserve Economic Data. "Job Openings and Labor Turnover."

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