The U.S. labor market is in a weird place right now. What’s behind job security and sluggish hiring?

Since peaking in March 2022 as the economy accelerated out of the pandemic recession, the number of listed job openings has dropped by more than a third. Laid off by the music streaming service Spotify last year, Joovay Arias figured he’d land another job as a software engineer fairly soon. His previous job search, in 2019, had been a breeze.“Back then,” he said, “I had tons of recruiters reaching out to me — to the point where I had to turn them down.”Arias did find another job...