Demand for workers remained near record highs, with 11.4 million job openings in April, as the tight labor market continues to be a bright spot for the U.S. economy.
Some 4.4 million Americans quit or changed jobs that month, according to a report released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, using their leverage in an economy where job openings still outnumber job seekers by close to 2 to 1.
Employers reported hiring 6.6 million people in April. Layoffs, meanwhile, fell to an all-time low of 1.2 million, as businesses sought to keep the workers they did have.
“The labor market remains strong even though things are cooling off a bit,” said Nick Bunker, an economist at the jobs site Indeed. “We’re still very much in a worker’s and job seeker’s market.”
The latest figures come as the U.S. job market notches month after month of solid growth. U.S. employers added 428,000 jobs in April — the 12th consecutive month of at least 400,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate is at a pandemic low of 3.6 percent.
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