Job openings fell in October to their lowest stage since February 2021, Certainly measurements present

A job seeker holds a brochure during a New York Department of Labor job fair at the Downtown Central Library in Buffalo, New York, U.S., on Wednesday, August 27, 2025.

Lauren Petracca | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Job opportunities reached their lowest level in more than four and a half years as October ended and the government shutdown dragged on, according to data from job site Indeed.

The company’s job postings index fell to 101.9 on Oct. 24, the most recent level for which data is available. This is the lowest value since the beginning of February 2021 for a metric that uses February 2020 as a base value of 100.

The level represents a 0.5% decline since the beginning of the month and a decline of about 3.5% since mid-August, the latest point from which Bureau of Labor Statistics data is available.

Under normal conditions, the BLS would have released its monthly survey of job vacancies and labor turnover on Tuesday, a measure that Federal Reserve officials are keeping a close eye on for signs of a lull in the labor market. With the shutdown poised to become the longest in history, economists and policymakers must look for alternative data for aggregate indicators.

The latest JOLTS report for August also suggested a continued decline in openings. The BLS reported a total of 7.23 million job openings, about the same level as July but down 7% from January.

Indeed’s indicators dashboard has also shown a decline in salary offers as job postings have declined. Year-over-year, wages, as measured by salary offers in Indeed posts, rose 2.5% in August, compared to 3.4% in January.

A weakening labor market has raised concerns among Fed officials. The central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee voted 10-2 last week to cut the key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to a target range of 3.75% to 4%.

Officials have indicated that rising risks to the labor market take precedence over ongoing concerns about inflation running nearly a full percentage point above the Fed’s 2 percent target.

“Hiring is slowing. We’re seeing that in job postings,” Fed Governor Lisa Cook said Monday. “We’re looking at a wealth of data, and we’re looking at it in real time. We’re not waiting for the unemployment report. There’s reason to be concerned because there’s been a slight increase in the unemployment rate over the summer.”

The nonfarm payrolls report would normally be released on Friday, but that isn’t happening either. Economists polled by Dow Jones estimated the BLS count would have shown a decline of 60,000 jobs in October and a rise in the unemployment rate to 4.5%.