Analysis: U.S. job openings declined in February, and the hiring pace has significantly slowed down.

Deep Tide TechFlow message. On March 31, according to data from Jintou, U.S. job openings fell in February and hiring noticeably slowed, indicating that labor demand had already begun to cool before the additional uncertainty sparked by the Iran war. Data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday showed that job openings declined from 7.24 million after an upward revision from January to 6.88 million. After job openings had rebounded somewhat at the start of the year, the simultaneous slowdown in hiring and vacancies suggested that after a year of near-zero growth, businesses are becoming more cautious about hiring. Going forward, the surge in oil prices driven by the war could raise operating costs for companies and pose resistance to further hiring. The decline in job openings was mainly driven by pullbacks in accommodation and food services, healthcare and social assistance, and manufacturing. The hiring rate fell to the lowest level since April 2020, while the layoff rate rose slightly. Although large companies, including Meta and Oracle, are rolling out large-scale layoffs to reallocate resources toward AI investments, the overall layoff level across the broader economy remains relatively moderate.