WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. job openings barely budged in October, coming in at 7.7 million with ongoing uncertainty over the direction of the American economy.
The Labor Department reported Tuesday that employers posted 7.67 million vacancies in October, close to September’s 7.66 million.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), which was delayed by the extended government shutdown, also showed that the layoffs rose to almost 1.9 million, most since January 2023. And the number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in the labor market — fell in October, suggesting that “businesses seeking to control labor costs will have to pivot to active layoffs, lifting unemployment, rather than rely on natural attrition,” Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon, wrote in a commentary.
Job openings have come down steadily since peaking at a record 12.1 million in March 2022, when the economy was roaring back from COVID-19 lockdowns. The job market has cooled partly because of the lingering effect of the high interest rates the Federal engineered in 2022 and 2023 to combat an outburst of inflation.
Overall, it’s a puzzling time for the American economy, buffeted by President Donald Trump’s decision to reverse decades of U.S. policy in favor of free trade and instead impose double-digit tariffs on imports from most of the world’s countries.
Policymakers at the Federal Reserve are meeting this week to decide whether to cut their benchmark interest rate, and the gathering is expected to be unusually contentious. Inflation remains stuck above the Fed’s 2% target, partly because importers have tried to pass along the cost of Trump’s tariffs by raising prices. Normally, stubborn inflation would discourage Fed policymakers from cutting rates. But the job market has looked shaky in recent months, and the Fed is expected to reduce its benchmark rate for the third time this year, though some policymakers might dissent.
Meanwhile, the 43-day federal shutdown has made a mess of the government’s economic statistics.
The October report on job openings came out a week late, and the September version was not published separately because federal data collectors were on furlough. Instead, September’s JOLTS numbers were folded into Tuesday’s report along with October’s. They showed a hefty increase in openings from 7.23 million in August.
The Labor Department will issue numbers for hiring and unemployment for November next Tuesday, 11 days later than originally scheduled. The department is not releasing an unemployment rate for October because it could not calculate the number during the shutdown. It will release some of the October jobs data — including the number of positions that employers created that month — along with the full November jobs report.
Forecasters surveyed by the data firm FactSet predict that employers added fewer than 38,000 jobs in November and that the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.5% from September’s 4.4%. That would be low by historical standards, but the highest in nearly four years.
FILE - Applicants line up at a job fair at the Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City N.J., on April 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry, File)
MOUNT VERNON, Washington (AP) — Residents packed up valuables and prepared to flee rising rivers in western Washington state Wednesday as a new wave of heavy rain swept into a region still reeling from a storm that triggered rescues and road closures a day earlier.
In the Pacific Northwest, an atmospheric river was swelling rivers toward record levels, with major flooding expected in some areas including the Skagit River, in a major agricultural valley north of Seattle. Dozens of vehicles were backed up at a sandbag-filling station in the town of Mount Vernon as authorities warned all residents who live within the river's floodplain to be ready to evacuate.
“We’re preparing for what increasingly appears to be a worst-case scenario here," Mount Vernon Mayor Peter Donovan said.
In the Mount Rainier foothills southeast of Seattle, Pierce County sheriff’s deputies rescued people at an RV park in Orting, including helping one man in a Santa hat wade through waist-deep water. Part of the town was ordered to evacuate over concerns about the Puyallup River’s extremely high levels and its upstream levees.
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson declared a statewide emergency Wednesday. “Lives will be at stake in the coming days,” he said.
“It’s time to pay attention,” said Gent Welsh, adjutant general of the Washington National Guard.
Hundreds of Washington National Guard members will be sent to help communities, Welsh said.
The Skagit River is expected to crest at roughly 47 feet (14.3 meters) in the mountain town of Concrete early Thursday, and roughly 41 feet (12 meters) in Mount Vernon early Friday morning.
Those are both “record-setting forecasts by several feet,” Skagit County officials said.
Mount Vernon, the largest city in the county with some 35,000 residents, completed a wall in 2018 that helps protect the downtown from flooding. But the city — parts of which are in the floodplain, including commercial areas — is on high alert.
“With a flood of the magnitude that’s predicted here in the next couple of days, I’m concerned about all of our buildings in the city in the floodplain,” said Donovan, the mayor.
Harrison Rademacher, a meteorologist with the weather service in Seattle, described the atmospheric river soaking the region as “a jet stream of moisture” stretching across the Pacific Ocean “with the nozzle pushing right along the coast of Oregon and Washington.”
Authorities in Washington have knocked on doors to warn residents of imminent flooding in certain neighborhoods, and evacuated a mobile home park along the Snohomish River. The city of Snohomish issued an emergency proclamation, while workers in Auburn, south of Seattle, installed temporary flood control barriers along the White River.
Along Interstate 5 between Seattle and Portland, firefighters on Tuesday rescued people who tried to drive on flooded roads, including a semitruck driver, said Malachi Simper, spokesperson for Lewis County Fire Protection District 5. Authorities rescued a family of six from their home in Chehalis, he said, where the road was covered by about 4 feet (1.2 meters) of water. No one was injured.
Another storm system is expected to bring more rain starting Sunday, Rademacher said. “The pattern looks pretty unsettled going up to the holidays.”
Rush reported from Portland, Oregon. Associated Press writers Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland, and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.
A flag ripples in the wind as snow falls in Lowville, New York, on Tuesday night, Dec. 9, 2025. The area faces a winter storm warning through Thursday. (AP Photo/Cara Anna)
Rescue workers with Chehalis Fire venture into a flooded neighborhood to pick up evacuees after heavy rains, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, in Chehalis, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
A flag ripples in the wind as snow falls in Lowville, New York, on Tuesday night, Dec. 9, 2025. The area faces a winter storm warning through Thursday. (AP Photo/Cara Anna)
Floodwaters surround homes and buildings after heavy rains, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, in Chehalis, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Maery Schine, 11, is helped out of a rescue boat by rescue workers with Chehalis Fire after evacuating with her father Patric, second from left, following flooding after heavy rains in the region Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, in Chehalis, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
A man checks on a car caught in flooding after heavy rains Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, in Napavine, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Chehalis Fire rescue workers help residents evacuate their flooded neighborhood after heavy rains in the region Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, in Chehalis, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
