U.S. employers cut job openings in September but remained conservative in both hiring and firing as the overall market remained steady but became more stagnant.

There were 7.4 million job openings in September, down from 7.9 million in August and the fewest since January 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Tuesday. That was less than the 8 million openings that economists had expected, according to a survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

The declining number of open positions was a bitter note in Employment and turnover survey report, which provides a more detailed look at labor market developments.

Labor market details

Jobs shed 1.8 million people, the most since January 2023, though relatively small compared to pre-pandemic levels. Fewer people left their jobs, suggesting they were less confident about finding a new one: 3.1 million people quit in September, the fewest since August 2020.

It wasn’t all bad news for workers, though: Hiring rose to 5.6 million, a four-month high. There were 1.1 job openings for every unemployed worker, similar to pre-pandemic levels and far fewer than the hot labor market of 2022, when there were two job openings for every unemployed worker.

“Hiring and job-to-job transitions are slowing, but firing is also very low,” Ali Jaffery, an economist at CIBC, wrote in a commentary. “Part of this story likely reflects that firms have hired enough staff and matched the right technology with workers, reducing their demand for additional labor at this point in the cycle, but able to build on the solid productivity of their existing workforce “.

The report is a “mixed bag”

Overall, the report was a “mixed bag” that did little to change the overall picture of the labor market, Nancy Vanden Houten, senior economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in a commentary.

The lack of major surprises leaves the Federal Reserve on track to cut its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points at the central bank’s next policy committee meeting in November, Vanden Houten said.

The Fed began cutting rates in September to lower borrowing costs and stimulate the economy. The Fed has kept its benchmark interest rate at a two-decade high to combat inflation, but with inflation slowing and the labor market cooling, the Fed has increasingly turned its attention to preventing a spike in unemployment . A lower federal funds rate puts downward pressure on borrowing costs for credit cards, auto loans, mortgages and other loans.

Financial markets priced a 99.7 percent chance of a 0.25 percentage point cut in November, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, which forecasts rate moves based on federal funds futures trading data.