This week brings a fresh batch of data on the current state of the job market, from April’s job openings and layoffs report on Tuesday to May’s closely watched payroll and unemployment report on Friday.
On Tuesday, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) showed that the US economy added 7.62 million job openings in April, surpassing estimates for 6.87 million openings. While job openings surged to their highest level in two years, the hiring rate declined to 3.2%.
That tees up Friday’s jobs report, which is expected to show signs of relative health in the labor market. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg estimate the US added 85,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.3%. If that prediction holds, May would be the third consecutive month of positive payroll growth.
That would be an improvement from late 2025, when economists were watching the labor market apprehensively as the country added virtually no jobs. Now, their attention is instead shifting to concerns about rising prices, which are eating away at workers’ pay gains and tanking consumer sentiment.
Here’s the jobs data schedule for this week:
-
April Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS): June 2, 10 a.m. ET
-
May ADP National Employment Report: June 3, 8:15 a.m. ET
-
May Challenger Report on layoff announcements: June 4, 5:30 a.m. ET
-
May Employment Situation Report: June 5, 8:30 a.m. ET
LIVE 6 updates
-
Hiring rate ticks down even as openings increase
While the number of job openings was better than expected for April, the total number of hires declined from the previous month by 419,000 to hit 5.12 million.
The hiring rate, at 3.2%, continues to underscore some of the pain job-seekers are feeling, hovering near levels that were previously seen in the early days of the pandemic and, before that, in 2013.
-
Job openings surge to 2-year high in April, beating expectations
Job openings surged in April to reach their highest level since May 2024, federal data shows — soaring past economists’ expectations while suggesting that the labor market might be showing signs of spring.
7.62 million positions were open in April, according to Tuesday’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected 6.87 million openings for the month, roughly on par with March’s revised level of 6.89 million.
Nearly 670,000 additional openings were seen in professional and business services alone, bringing the month’s total to 1.72 million — the most since April 2023.
Keep reading.
-
Remote work — not AI — may be to blame for young college grads’ job market woes
The prevalence of remote work may be largely to blame for the uptick in unemployment among recent college graduates, according to a new analysis from the New York Fed.
Work-from-home arrangements, which have surged fourfold since the pandemic, can explain an estimated 64% of the recent increase in joblessness among young grads, New York Fed researchers said, with some employers perhaps finding it more difficult to train new workers from afar.
“Companies may be more reluctant to hire less-experienced workers in distributed work arrangements,” the researchers wrote.
Read more on what the New York Fed research found.
-
America’s job market looks strong. So why is it so difficult to find work?
On paper, the job market appears to be holding up. The unemployment rate of 4.3% is below the 10-year average, and the April jobs report showed surprisingly strong job growth.
Yet, many Americans report that it’s difficult to find a job. So what’s behind the disconnect?
CNN reports that many of the challenges job seekers face today stem from a yearslong decline in job openings, which has intensified competition for available roles. Here’s what else is going on in the labor market:
New opportunities aren’t universal: In April, half of the new jobs created came from healthcare, while the other half came from retail, and transportation and warehousing.
DOGE layoff effect still being felt: Since reaching peak levels in 2024, federal employment is down by nearly 350,000 as of April, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
AI is intensifying the competition: AI is reshaping the job market, from reducing the number of open roles in some industries to changing how candidates search and apply for positions.
Mid-to-late-career hurdles: Four years ago, laid-off workers 45 to 54 years old were unemployed for an average of 27.1 weeks, compared to the current average of 30.7 weeks, according to the BLS. Those rates have also climbed for people 55+.
Read more here.
-
Salaries are growing faster than hourly wages. Here’s why that matters.
Salaried workers’ pay growth has outpaced gains among hourly earners in the past year, with advertised wages declining outright among hourly workers in IT, software development, and other STEM fields, according to a new analysis from the Indeed Hiring Lab.
The analysis drew on pay information across millions of job postings from the beginning of 2025 through early 2026, finding that posted wages for salaried roles grew 2.9% while advertised pay for their hourly counterparts rose only 1.7%.
The wage growth gap between hourly earners and salaried workers, who already tend to be in higher-income positions and receive workplace benefits, is all the more important as rising consumer prices climb past workers’ pay gains. Prices in April surged by 3.8% compared to a year earlier — largely thanks to rising energy costs — while average hourly earnings rose just 3.6%.
Read more here.
-
The labor market data releases to watch this week
The government’s jobs report on Friday will cap a week of economic data, providing investors with an up-to-date read on the health of the labor market. Here’s what economists surveyed by Bloomberg are expecting:
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
-
May Challenger report on job cuts: -20.9% year over year previously
-
Final reading of first quarter nonfarm productivity: +0.7% expected, +0.8% previously
-
Initial jobless claims for the week ended May 30: 215,000 previously
-
Continuing claims for the week ended May 23: 1.786 million previously
Friday
Read more here.
