Job openings rose to their highest level in nearly two years in April as hirings plunged during the second month of the Iran war and voluntary separations hit their lowest level since 2020.

The military conflict has fueled resurgent inflation and caused economic volatility to mount as a global energy supply crunch and cascading trade disruptions from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz send fuel, transportation and commodity prices soaring.

The number of available job openings in the U.S. rose to 7.6 million in April, reflecting a monthly increase of 10.6%, or roughly 731,000 positions. That reflects an annual increase of about 7.3%, or 520,000 jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labr Statistics (BLS).

However, as the job opening rate jumped on a monthly basis to 4.6% in April from 4.2% in March, the hiring rate slowed to 3.2% from 3.5% the prior month. Hirings ultimately fell on a monthly and yearly basis, with the 5.1 million recorded reflecting a nearly 7.6% slide from March and 5.1% decline from a year ago.

The pace of job separations also slowed in April though, to 3.1% from 3.4% in March, signaling that the U.S. labor market remains in the ‘low hire, low fire’ environment that it has maintained since last summer. Separations of almost 5 million were 7.4% lower than March and 5.5% lower than a year ago.

U.S. labor markets are also feeling the protracted effects of President Donald Trump’s signature tariff policies, which have not only contributed to rising inflation since they were implemented last April, but also generated heightened uncertainty for U.S. businesses over the past year.

The BLS previously reported in May that job gains rose 115,000 in April, beating consensus estimates — though economists warned at the time that the strong headline reading obscured concentrated gains and destabilizing influences of AI advancements and volatile trade policy.

The government is scheduled to release its employment summary for May on Friday.

The compounding effects of war- and tariff-fueled inflation — amid steadily cooling but stable job markets — have Fed officials quickly pivoting in recent months to regard accelerating inflation and not weakening labor markets as the primary risk to the Fed’s dual mandate to maintain stable prices and maximum employment.

“Inflation I’m not particularly worried about,” said policy dove and Fed Governor Chris Waller just in mid-December, contrasting himself with his other central bank “colleagues that are very concerned that inflation’s going to get stuck.”

As of late May, Waller was landing the pirouette of a hawkish policy pivot, just as President Donald Trump’s newly appointed Fed chair, Kevin Warsh, was about to take office.

“Despite my lingering concerns going forward, I don’t see the prospect of a weakening labor market as the dominant force that should be guiding monetary policy in the months ahead,” stated Waller, speaking at a recent economics event in Frankfurt, Germany.

Among private sector employers in April, government estimates affirm the accelerated clip at which payroll processing firm ADP had previously reported private employers added positions in April, defying expectations that the Iran conflict would suppress job openings.

Private-sector job openings climbed to 6.8 million in April, up more than 11% from March and nearly 9% from a year ago. Uptake of those positions slowed, however, mirroring market-wide trends, with private-sector hirings of about 4.8 million reflecting an 8.1% drop over the month and 5% decline from a year ago.

Among specific sectors, roughly 668,000 job openings in professional and business services fields more than offset a decline of 135,000 positions in finance and insurance segments. Meanwhile, the leisure and hospitality sectors shed 67,000 jobs as federal government job openings increased by 17,000.

Actual job hirings, as opposed to just openings, rose by 17,000 or 5.5% over the month in the construction sector while manufacturer hirings fell by 20,000 or 6.6%. Hirings across the trade, transportation and utilities sectors, which has felt immediate impacts of the global energy shock more acutely, declined by 134,000 or 11.1% in April.