WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. job openings fell last month to 6.9 million and hiring was weak, more signs of sluggishness in the American labor market.

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that job vacancies slid from 7.2 million in January.

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS), showed that layoffs rose. Just 2.97 million people quit their jobs in February. Typically, people giving up their jobs is a sign of confidence in their prospects for finding better pay or working conditions elsewhere. The number of people leaving jobs last month was the fewest since August 2020.

A measure of hiring also deteriorated: The JOLTS report showed 4.85 million gross hires in February, fewest since April 2020. The hiring rate — the number of hires as a percentage of employment — dropped to 3.1%, also the lowest since April 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down economic activity.

The numbers show the labor market before the Iran war drove up gasoline prices and increased uncertainty.

Christopher S. Rupkey, chief economist at the financial research firm fwdbonds, wrote in a commentary that the drop in openings “as the Iran war started is not a good omen for the health and vitality of the labor market. Companies have grown more cautious as the price of gasoline has risen over a dollar a gallon since the war began, and consumers have become much less confident.”

The U.S. job market has sputtered over the past year, reflecting the lingering impact of the high interest rates and uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s economic policies and the impact of artificial intelligence.

Employers added fewer than 10,000 net jobs a month in 2025 – weakest hiring outside a recession since 2002. This year started out with a decent 126,000 new jobs in January. But in February, the United States lost 92,000 jobs. When the Labor Department releases March jobs numbers Friday, they’re expected to show that hiring rebounded and that companies, nonprofits and government agencies added 60,000 jobs this month.

Despite sluggish hiring, the unemployment rate has stayed low – at 4.4%. Economists refer to a low-hire, low-fire job market in which companies are hesitant to add staff but don’t want to let go of the workers they have. There are growing worries that AI is taking over entry-level work and that companies are reluctant to make hiring decisions until they better understand how they are going to use AI.

Brought to you by www.srnnews.com