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US job openings decline in February amid rising economic uncertainty

U.S. job openings fell in February as rising uncertainty over the economy due to tariffs on imports curbed demand for labor. Job openings, a measure of labor demand, dropped 194,000 to 7.568 million by the last day of February, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Tuesday. President Donald Trump has made a raft of tariff announcements since returning to the White House on January 20, including hefty duties on imports of steel and aluminum and a 25% levy on imported cars and light trucks.

February US job openings slip to 7.6M, consistent with a healthy but decelerating job market

Employers posted 7.6 million job openings in February, a sign that that the job market is slowing but remains healthy. Layoffs of federal workers hit the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic slammed the economy in 2020, as Elon Musk's job cuts start to show up in national jobs data. The number of vacancies fell slightly from a revised 7.8 million in January and from a 8.4 million a year earlier, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.