Weekly Economic Trends and Indicators
The Headlines:
On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for January. There was very little change in job openings, hires, quits, and layoffs across most industries, though there were a handful of industries for which there was significant change.
Data on job postings for the Quad Cities area shows a slight decrease for the first two months of 2026 compared to the end of 2025.
The Details:
Nationally, job openings were little changed in January with only a slight increase of 396,000 after seasonal adjustment. The rate of job openings (openings divided by employment plus openings and expressed as a percentage) was 4.2%--just under the 2025 average of 4.3%. The rate of job openings has declined gradually from the post-COVID peak of 6.8% in 2022.
The sector experiencing the largest change in job openings in January was finance and insurance, which saw an increase of 184,000 openings (seasonally adjusted) which pushed the rate of openings from 1.9% in December to 4.5% in January.
Local data on job postings from Lightcast also showed a small change, but in the negative direction. As noted in our most recent Quarterly Market Report, job postings in the Quad Cities area for the 4th quarter of 2025 ran slightly ahead of the 4th quarter of 2024. However, in the first two months of 2026, local job postings fell slightly behind last year’s pace (10,280 in Jan.-Feb. 2026 compared to 10,915 in Jan.-Feb. 2025).
As in the national data, there was a noticeable increase in job postings in finance and insurance in the Quad Cities with 375 in the first two months of 2026 compared to 334 in the same period last year.
The Context:
Both the national and the local data on the labor market continues to show a very gradual slowing of activity. Manufacturing employment is still essentially flat. Health care employment has been the best performing sector in most months. Construction employment saw significant increase locally in 2025, and the financial sector shows signs of positive movement both locally and nationally. However, the overall picture continues to be one of slow growth.
Note that all of the data discussed here is from before the U.S. military action in Iran which has caused increased volatility in world energy markets. We also will have a new Federal Reserve Chair, pending Senate confirmation. Kevin Warsh, the President’s nominee for the position, is expected to push for lower interest rates. The expectation of lower rates would help the housing market, and may be partly responsible for the increased job openings in the financial sector. However, if oil prices remain elevated, it could derail those plans as the Fed would need to worry more about the inflation risk from higher energy and transport costs.
Next week: U.S. economic outlook update
