The job market was supposed to be cooling down—instead, it heated up in April, with the number of job openings rising, breaking a three-month downtrend.

The number of job openings unexpectedly rose in April to 10.1 million, up from 9.7 million in March, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday. The first increase since December defied the predictions of economists, who on average had expected openings to fall to 9.5 million. The increase in openings strengthened the upper hand that workers have in the labor market—each unemployed person had 1.8 jobs to pick from, up from 1.7 in March and the highest since September.

The report highlighted how employers have resisted the economic forces working against the job market. Loans have grown costlier for businesses because of the Federal Reserve’s campaign of anti-inflation interest rate hikes. Not only that, lenders have 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:grown more tight-fisted in the wake of a string of bank failures. Yet, a post-pandemic shortage of labor has kept workers in high demand, layoffs low, and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:a recession at bay.

“The demand for workers is still strong and the labor market is largely continuing to chug along nicely as it finds a more sustainable balance between workers, job seekers and employers,” said Nick Bunker, economic research director for North America at the Hiring Lab at job website Indeed, in a commentary.

The layoff rate ticked down to 1% from 1.2%, reversing an uptick in March in a further indication of how reluctant employers are to let go of workers.

Not all the data in the report cut in the🐷 same direction. The quit rate—a sign of how willing workers are to switch jobs—edged down to 2.4% from 2.5% in March.

Still, the overall data points to a job market with workers in high demand, putting upward pressure on pay. That’s likely to encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates even further when policymakers meet in June, economists said. The central bank is aiming to cool the economy and prevent a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:wage-price spiral from fueling out-of-control inflation.