US labor market cools down further with job openings, hires, quits all drop in March

Last Updated: March 13, 2026

The March US job opening and labor turnover report shows that job opening rate, hire rate and quit rate all dropped marginally in March, as the US labor market cooled down a little bit at the end of the first quarter.

The number of job vacancies fell to 8.49 million in March, from 8.81 million in the previous month

• the job opening rate also lowered to 5.1% from 5.3%.

BLS also estimated that 5.5 million people found new employment in March, less than the 5.78 million hires booked in February.

• hire rate, the number of hires divided by the total number of employed population, as a result also reduced to 3.5% from 3.7%

The number of people separated from their jobs also also reduced to 5.2 million, compared to February’s 5.54 million.

• that included 1.53 million people who got laid off and 3.33 million who quit their jobs.
• both layoff rate and quit rate dropped 0.1 percentage point, to 1% and 2.1% respectively.