Job Openings Rise to 7.6 Million in April as Hires Fall to 5.1 Million

Job openings rose to 7.6 million in April 2026, an increase of 731,000 over the month, and the job openings rate climbed to 4.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Hires and total separations both retreated over the same month, to 5.1 million and 5.0 million respectively. Within separations, quits and layoffs and discharges were each little changed. JOLTS reads the labor market one month behind the payroll report, and it reads it from the demand side: job openings count positions employers are still trying to fill on the last business day of the month, while hires and separations are flows accumulated across the entire month.

Job Openings Rebound, but the Gain Is Concentrated

The number and rate of job openings increased to 7.6 million and 4.6 percent in April. The openings rate stood at 4.2 percent in March and at 4.3 percent in April 2025, so April returned the series to the upper end of its recent range. Measured against the year-earlier month, job openings increased by 520,000.

The composition of that increase deserves more attention than the headline. Professional and business services recorded an increase of 668,000 job openings, against a total monthly increase of 731,000 for the nonfarm sector. Finance and insurance decreased by 135,000. An advance that rests on a single supersector to this degree is a narrower signal than the aggregate implies, and it is worth treating the April openings level as provisional until a second month either confirms or reverses the professional-and-business-services surge.

By establishment size, firms with 1 to 9 employees recorded an increase in the job openings rate while their hires and separations rates showed little change. At establishments with 5,000 or more employees, the job openings, hires, layoffs and discharges, and total separations rates showed little or no change, while the quits rate increased.

The Turnover Picture: Hires and Separations Both Retreat

The number and rate of hires decreased to 5.1 million and 3.2 percent in April, a decline of 419,000 over the month. The hires rate was 3.5 percent in March and 3.4 percent in April 2025, placing April below both comparison points. BLS reported hires little changed in all industries, which means the decline was diffuse rather than concentrated in any one sector — a broad-based cooling in the pace at which employers are actually filling roles, even as the stock of advertised openings rose.

That combination is the tension at the center of this report. Openings are a stock measured at month-end; hires are a flow measured across the month. Openings rising while hires declined says employers posted more positions while completing fewer placements. Openings are not a forecast of hiring, and April is a reminder that the two series can diverge.

Total separations decreased to 5.0 million and 3.1 percent, a decline of 399,000 over the month. The separations rate was 3.4 percent in March and 3.3 percent in April 2025. Retail trade recorded a decrease of 136,000 total separations.

Quits, the voluntary component and the standard read on whether workers believe they can do better elsewhere, were little changed at 3.0 million, with the quits rate at 1.9 percent. BLS reported quits little changed in all industries.

Layoffs and the Composition of Separations

The number and rate of layoffs and discharges were little changed at 1.7 million and 1.1 percent in April. Retail trade was the exception, recording a decrease of 88,000 layoffs and discharges. Other separations — which capture retirements, deaths, disability, and transfers to other locations of the same firm — were little changed at 310,000.

The composition of separations is what distinguishes a churning labor market from a weakening one. Separations weighted toward voluntary quits describe workers leaving by choice; separations weighted toward involuntary layoffs describe employers shedding staff. In April, BLS characterized both quits and layoffs and discharges as little changed, so the balance between voluntary and involuntary exits held. The decline in total separations therefore did not come from either component tilting the mix — it came without altering that balance.

March Revisions

BLS revised each of the March headline series:

• Job openings: revised up by 21,000 to 6.9 million
• Hires: revised down by 19,000 to 5.5 million
• Total separations: revised down by 1,000 to 5.4 million
• Quits: revised down by 11,000 to 3.2 million
• Layoffs and discharges: revised up by 17,000 to 1.9 million

Monthly revisions of this magnitude are routine in JOLTS. They result from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates, and from the recalculation of seasonal factors. The April figures above are compared against these revised March levels, not against the originally published March prints.

What It Means for Labor Demand

April does not resolve cleanly in either direction. The stock of open positions increased sharply, but almost entirely within professional and business services. The flow measures — hires and total separations — both declined, and the hires rate fell below both its March level and its year-earlier level. Quits and layoffs held, which argues against reading the hires decline as the start of involuntary weakening.

The reading best supported by this month's data is that labor demand became concentrated rather than uniformly stronger or weaker. A rising openings count paired with a falling hires count is consistent with employers advertising roles they are slow to fill, whether because of matching frictions or because the postings reflect planning rather than immediate need.

The next Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey release, covering May 2026, is scheduled for Tuesday, June 30, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. ET. The figure that will confirm or contradict this read is the hires level. A second consecutive decline would establish the April drop as a trend rather than a one-month divergence; a rebound toward the March level of 5.5 million would mark April as noise and leave the higher openings count as the more durable signal.