WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers posted fewer job openings in August, but the American labor market remains resilient in the face of higher energy costs caused by the fighting with Iran.
U.S. job openings slid to 7.08 million from a revised 7.34 million in July, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. Openings came in below the 7.2 million that forecasters had expected and were the lowest since they hit 6.9 million in March.
The department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) also showed that layoffs fell and the number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in their prospects — retreated slightly in August. The JOLTS report's measure of gross hiring — before subtracting people who quit or lost their jobs — ticked up modestly in August but remains at low levels.
The U.S. job market is sturdy, though unspectacular, despite an energy shock from the Iran war. Hiring has rebounded from a miserable 2025. Employers — businesses, nonprofits and government agencies — have added an average 80,000 jobs a month so far this year. That is an improvement on the 9,700-a-month average last year when high interest rates and uncertainty about President Donald Trump's trade policies discouraged businesses from hiring.
Still, Americans’ confidence in the economy has sunk to the lowest level in more than a decade, according to the monthly index released Tuesday by the Conference Board.
When the Labor Department releases its next jobs report on Friday, it is expected to show that the United States added 95,000 net jobs in September, solid but down from a surprising 162,000 in August. The unemployment rate likely stayed a low 4.1% as most American workers enjoy an unusual degree of job security, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet.
Employers may not be laying workers off, but they aren't hiring nearly as many as they did a few years ago. Hiring remains well below the 166,000 monthly jobs created, on average, in 2023 and 2024, and the 491,000 a month recorded during the 2021-2022 hiring boom that followed COVID-19 lockdowns.
Cory Stahle, senior economist at the Indeed jobs website, said the labor market is "far less dynamic than it was a few years ago. It’s a comfortable place to be if you already have a job. It’s a frustrating one if you’re trying to find one, especially for new graduates and others entering the workforce.''
A hiring sign is displayed at a food court in a grocery store, in Schaumburg, Ill., Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
MADRID (AP) — An 87-year-old woman whose eviction sparked massive protests in Spain over the country's housing crisis has accepted deal to return home, her lawyer said Tuesday.
Maria del Carmen Abascal's eviction sparked protests that prompted the government to implement new housing measures. She will return home as soon as she is discharged from a hospital following an agreement with the company that owns her building, her lawyer told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
MADRID (AP) — Spain’s government on Tuesday presented measures to address the country's housing crisis that has drawn tens of thousands of people to the streets in recent days after the eviction of an 87-year-old woman last week. It remains to be seen if they go far enough to appease protesters.
The coalition led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialists announced the measures after four days of intense protests centered around an encampment in Puerta del Sol, Madrid's most iconic plaza. They were sparked by the eviction of María del Carmen Abascal, who was carried out on a stretcher from the apartment where she had lived for seven decades and has become widely known as simply “Maricarmen.”
The main decree extends protection against evictions for vulnerable Spaniards until 2030, regulates room rentals, imposes a new tax on seasonal rentals and bans “speculative real estate purchases by vulture funds” until 2028, Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez told reporters at the presidential palace. It remains unclear how such funds are classified or how large the tax will be, as the decree's full text has yet to be released.
It also offers tax breaks to landlords who rent to low-income tenants, offers interest-free loans to families buying their first home, and protects public housing and promotes its construction, Rodríguez added.
“This has been thanks to the citizen movement. To Maricarmen. To the thousands of people in the streets,” Spain's Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz wrote on social media.
Rising costs and a housing shortage are pricing many Spaniards out of the housing market, despite strong economic growth in Europe’s fourth-largest economy. The protesters have been demanding stronger protections for tenants, measures to combat fraud and a ban on evictions when alternative housing is unavailable.
Parliament has 30 days to ratify the measures, and the government wants to expedite the process and has called an extraordinary plenary session on housing for Friday. The government's coalition holds 152 of the chamber’s 350 seats, so it needs the support of smaller parties across the political spectrum to pass bills. Lack of parliamentary support in late July prevented the approval of similar measures.
The Madrid Tenants’ Union, the organizer of the protest, said it would remain cautious until it could review “the fine print” of the decree.
“The streets, this encampment and all the others currently across the country are engaging in a historic standoff with the government to push it to advance the right to housing through measures that had not been considered. And this continues,” said Alicia del Río, the union’s spokesperson.
The activists, planning more protests for the weekend, will decide later today whether to dismantle the encampment. The regional government, led by the conservative People’s Party, has asked the government delegate to clear the iconic square within 48 hours before taking the matter to court. The protesters have remained peaceful.
Smaller encampments have sprung up in other cities, from Seville and Málaga in the south to Santiago de Compostela in the north and Palma de Mallorca in the tourist-friendly Balearic Islands, drawing international attention to a long-running issue.
Asked about the situation on Monday, Pope Leo XIV said it underscored the need for political leaders to find solutions to the housing crisis affecting many communities.
“Maybe we have to insist that political leaders, authorities find a solution to this, because it’s obviously increasing and oftentimes we only react in the moment of an emergency,” he said, after admitting that he was not familiar with the case. “But we have to try to see what the systemic cause of the problem is and how to help.”
Spain has had a housing law in place since 2023 that regulates rents and protects tenants, as well as allowing rent caps in high-demand areas at the request of local governments.
In the meantime, the widespread pressure to reverse the most high-profile eviction in recent years has yielded results.
Abascal, who has been hospitalized since she was carried out of her apartment on Wednesday, will be able to return home following a preliminary agreement reached Monday night with the company that owns the building in the upscale Retiro neighborhood. The proposal limits her rent to 30% of her income, meaning she will not pay more than the 500 euros ($570) per month she paid previously, her lawyer, Beatriz Duro, told reporters Tuesday.
Spanish media reported that Abascal’s father first rented the property in 1956 and she continued as the tenant after her parents died, during which time there was a rent cap. The building changed ownership in 2018, and Abascal was offered the opportunity to buy the apartment but could not afford it, according to the Madrid Tenants’ Union, which organized Saturday’s protest.
Urbagestión, an investment fund that later bought the unit, raised her monthly rent from 500 euros to 2,650 euros. It subsequently lowered the rent to 1,650 euros, which Abascal still could not afford on her pension, the union said.
The company didn't respond to emailed and phone requests for comment from The Associated Press.
Associated Press journalists Nicole Winfield in Rome and Joseph Wilson in Barcelona contributed.
Protesters camp during a protest at Sol Square following the eviction last Wednesday of 87-year-old Maricarmen as they demand stronger laws to protect renters in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Tourists take pictures of protesters camping during a protest at Sol Square following the eviction last Wednesday of 87-year-old Maricarmen as they demand stronger laws to protect renters in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Demonstrators camp during a protest at Sol Square following the eviction last Wednesday of 87-year-old Maricarmen as they demand stronger laws to protect renters in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Tourists gather in front of protesters camping during a protest at Sol Square following the eviction last Wednesday of 87-year-old Maricarmen as they demand stronger laws to protect renters in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Demonstrators camp during a protest at Sol Square following the eviction last Wednesday of 87-year-old Maricarmen as they demand stronger laws to protect renters in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
