US job openings decline in February amid rising financial uncertainty

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. job openings fell in February as rising uncertainty over the financial system as a result of tariffs on imports curbed demand for labor.

Job openings, a measure of labor demand, dropped 194,000 to 7.568 million by the final day of February, the Labor Division’s Bureau of Labor Statistics mentioned in its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Tuesday.

Knowledge for January was revised barely increased to 7.762 million vacancies as a substitute of the beforehand reported 7.74 million. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 7.61 million unfilled positions.

Layoffs elevated 116,000 to a still-low 1.790 million.

President Donald Trump has made a raft of tariff bulletins since returning to the White Home on January 20, together with hefty duties on imports of metal and aluminum and a 25% levy on imported vehicles and lightweight vans.

Trump promised to announce world reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday, which he has dubbed “Liberation Day.”

He sees tariffs as a device to lift income to offset his promised tax cuts and to revive a long-declining U.S. industrial base. However economists have criticized the import duties as inflationary and dangerous to the financial system.

Enterprise and shopper sentiment have slumped. Economists now see increased odds of a recession over the following 12 months than they did earlier than the broad tariffs had been introduced. Increased costs and snarled provide chains due to import duties may end in layoffs, economists warned.

A hiring freeze and mass firings of federal employees as a part of the Trump administration’s unprecedented marketing campaign to drastically downsize the federal government are also anticipated to slam brakes on the labor market.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Modifying by Paul Simao)