Corporate America is leaving more jobs unfilled

T. Rowe Price is slowing hiring. JetBlue is reducing nonessential hiring. Polaris, which makes off-road vehicles, has paused some hiring for now. And more than a dozen universities, from Harvard to Duke, have enacted hiring freezes. All the organizations, and many more, say bringing in fewer employees will help them cut costs and weather a turbulent moment.

“We have instituted our recessionary playbook," Robert Mack, chief financial officer of Polaris, told investors last week, citing a downturn in its industry.

A stop-start trade war, sinking consumer confidence and dramatic cuts to federal funding in education, research and the sciences have piled up in the past month. They come on top of companies’ yearslong desire to embrace artificial intelligence to make workers more efficient.

During earnings calls over the past two weeks, companies big and small shied away from mentioning layoffs, but repeatedly said they would be more cautious before bringing in new workers.

Jobs are becoming scarcer in fields ranging from government to white-collar work.

“We anticipate a slower pace of hiring" for the rest of the year, said Sarah Glickman, chief financial officer at advertising technology company Criteo.

Others, including Union Pacific railroad, insurance broker Marsh McLennan and financial-services firm Invesco, warned they could reduce hiring, if necessary, or keep roles unfilled if the economy worsens.

“In downside scenarios, yes, we have levers to pull," said John Doyle, chief executive of Marsh McLennan.

The jobs report on Friday showed that employers added 177,000 jobs in April, a surprisingly strong number considering the tariff uncertainty that has roiled markets. Jobs in healthcare and finance helped shore up hiring.

Paul Figgins, a 49-year-old technology training director in Salt Lake City, was laid off from a startup in February. Since then he has applied for about 10 jobs every weekday, tailoring his résumé to each role, crafting cover letters and reaching out to his professional network. Though he has worked at well-known companies, including Tesla and Wayfair, Figgins says open roles are dwindling.

“It’s definitely a different market," he said. “There’s less opportunity."

Paul Figgins, a 49-year-old job seeker in Salt Lake City.

Jobs are becoming scarcer in a range of fields, from government to white-collar work. Jobs advertised on Indeed are down 1.1% in the past two weeks. One decline—in scientific research and development—could be attributed to cuts in federal contract funding, Indeed said.

President Trump recently extended a governmentwide federal hiring freeze through mid-July. Many federal workers who hoped to get hired by state and local government have been disappointed. The University of Texas’ MD Anderson Cancer Center, like many other hospitals, has paused hiring for new administrative positions, though it is still filling patient-facing roles. Duolingo Chief Luis von Ahn told staff new job openings will only be filled if a team cannot automate more of its work, as it looks to deepen AI use.

Recruiters who help companies find job candidates say hiring has been falling at a steep rate for two months. Tina Hamilton, chief executive of myHR Partner, said her company’s revenue from hiring activities is down 50% compared with this time last year. The last time she saw a similar drop was before the 2008 recession.

“Our clients are holding off," she said.

Polaris, which makes snowmobiles, put a “selective near-term pause" on hiring to control costs, CEO Michael Speetzen said. The Minnesota company had 15,000 full-time employees at the end of 2024 and makes its vehicles in the U.S. using many imported parts from China. Polaris is at a disadvantage to rivals that use Chinese parts but assemble their products in Mexico. As a result of the uncertainty created by tariffs, Polaris withdrew its financial guidance for the full year and is cutting expenses.

People just entering the job market or coming back to it after a break have been having a tougher time finding work in the past few months, said Brad Hershbein, an economist at W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, a think tank focused on labor markets. That can indicate a deteriorating job market since entry-level hiring is a signal of new investment and growth, he added.

When companies are feeling cautious about the future, “that’s one place where they pull back first," Hershbein said. “People are increasingly saying they’re nervous."

Roswell Miller said the job market is tougher today than at the start of the year. The 2024 graduate of William & Mary, the college in Williamsburg, Va., wants to land an entry-level analyst role in finance, technology or consulting. Some weeks, he sends up to 100 job applications.

“There was a definite burst of enthusiasm in January and February," he said. “I got a few more interviews than I had been, and the folks I was chatting with were saying, ‘we’re not hiring aggressively but we are hiring.’"

The activity from earlier this year has slowed, said Miller, 22. He has been living with his grandmother in Connecticut, partly to be closer to job opportunities in New York City. For a while, he took a restaurant job to stay afloat.

“For all my frustrations with the white-collar job market," he said, “getting a job that pays $20 an hour to do service work of some sort hasn’t been difficult."

Write to Chip Cutter at chip.cutter@wsj.com and Lauren Weber at Lauren.Weber@wsj.com