Figures published Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show job openings fell from a downwardly revised 7.4 million in October to 7.1 million in November.
In a press release announcing the November findings of its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), the agency called the labor market “little changed,” despite the loss of nearly 300,000 job openings over the month.
The roughly 7.1 million open positions in November were approximately 885,000 fewer positions than a year earlier, reflecting the aggregate cooling of U.S. labor markets over the course of 2025. Economists polled by Reuters had anticipated job openings of around 7.6 million for the month.
The November JOLTS report included notable revisions to initial estimates of October hiring and firing trends.
Total job openings for that month were lowered by 221,000 to 7.4 million, while estimates of total hirings were increased by 219,000 to 5.4 million. That puts the number and rate of hires in November at 5.1 million and 3.2%, respectively, about 300,000 lower than October’s upwardly revised hiring pace.
The slide in hirings reflects the slowing rate of job openings, which slipped from 4.5% to 4.3% over the month. The hiring rate itself declined to 3.2% in November from 3.4% the month prior.
The BLS said in its report that the October revisions “were larger than normal since the alignment procedure was suspended for October preliminary data.”
A team of Wells Fargo economists described the November JOLTS data as “reinforcing a picture of a labor market treading water,” noting in a Wednesday market commentary that the job opening-to-unemployed ratio fell to 0.91 in November, its lowest since early 2021. A ratio lower than 1 means there are more unemployed workers than available jobs.
“The low churn environment has underpinned a tenuous balance between labor demand and labor supply,” they wrote. “With firms still cautious about expanding headcount, we expect job growth to remain subdued.”
Separations were flat from October to November at around 5.1 million, though voluntary separations (quits) were revised higher by 32,000 and the number of layoffs and discharges were revised lower by 4,000 for October.
Job openings in the construction sector saw a net gain of 90,000 jobs in November, exhibiting resilience compared to net job losses of 148,000 in the hotel and food service industries and 108,000 cuts in the transportation, warehousing and utilities sector.
Robert Dietz, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders, remarked in a Wednesday blog post that the 292,000 open construction jobs in November were 20,000 above last year’s levels, though still “notably lower” than before the Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates in March 2022.
“While home building employment was declining during the second half of 2025, other subsectors of the construction industry have expanded (e.g. data centers),” Dietz wrote, noting that the layoff rate in construction fell to 1.7% in November while the quits rate rose 1.5%.
NAHB surveys show that home builders ended 2025 with mostly gloomy outlooks on the single-family market, with two-thirds of respondents reporting the use of sales incentives to offload slow-to-sell standing inventories. As many as 40% reported cutting prices.
The U.S. Census Bureau is scheduled to publish updated reports on new-home sales, permits, starts and completions on Jan. 9 and 13, which have not been published since September (with August’s data) due to the federal government shutdown.
An employment summary report for December, scheduled to be released by the BLS on Friday, will put Wednesday’s JOLTS findings into sharper relief.
