US job openings dropped to the lowest level since 2020 in December

The number of open US jobs dropped to 6.5 million in December, marking the lowest level since 2020.

Job openings data was released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Feb. 5, two days later than anticipated, due to a partial federal government shutdown that occurred earlier in the week.

The December decline was steeper than analysts had expected. Job openings declined steadily starting in September 2025, and stood at 6.9 million in November.

A number of external factors, including tariffs, geopolitical tension, and high inflation, likely contributed to the pullback, Nicole Bachaud, a labor economist with ZipRecruiter, told HR Brew. “All of these things are adding layers and layers of uncertainty onto business outlooks,” she said.

Laying low. The factors Bachaud cited are prompting both employers and workers to hold off on making major moves, the data suggest. The rate of people quitting their jobs remained fairly low in December, at 2% of total employment. Layoffs stayed around the same level as November, as well, at 1.8 million.

A forthcoming ZipRecruiter survey indicates more than 50% of workers are “job hugging,” i.e. staying in a job or putting off looking for a new one longer than they’d planned due to economic uncertainty, Bachaud noted.

“Workers are navigating the same questions and coming to the same conclusion on their side of the market” as employers, she said, “and that’s leading to this low turnover environment where businesses are really benefiting from their workforce sticking around.”

The job-hugging effect presents a dilemma for talent acquisition professionals working in industries that are actually hiring, such as healthcare or construction. In order to convince job candidates that a new position is worth leaving their current role for, Bachaud said TA pros should prioritize not only pay, but flexibility. A 2024 survey from The Conference Board found flexibility was the benefit workers wanted most after a good salary.

“Being able to offer increased flexibility and being able to put in the forefront of job descriptions to make it really clear what a worker would be benefiting from and gaining moving into a position is important,” she said.

HR pros could likely gain more recent insight into the labor market when BLS publishes the delayed January report next Wednesday, Feb. 11. ADP’s report shows hiring remained sluggish during the first month of 2026, with employers adding just 22,000 jobs, down from 37,000 in December. And data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas shows layoff announcements surged to 108,435 in January, up 118% from the previous year.

“Generally, we see a high number of job cuts in the first quarter, but this is a high total for January,” Andy Challenger, the firm’s chief revenue officer, said in a statement. “It means most of these plans were set at the end of 2025, signaling employers are less-than-optimistic about the outlook for 2026.”