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The number of job openings declined slightly in January by 41,000 to 10.824 million from an upwardly revised 11.234 million in December, the JOLT survey from the U.S. Labor Department showed Wednesday.

Job openings in construction declined by 240,000, leisure and food services by 204,000 and insurance and financial services by 100,000 but rose in transportation, warehousing and utilities by 94,000 and nondurable goods manufacturing by 50,000.

Total hires in the month increased to 6.37 million, the largest total since August and separations were stable at 5.9 million. Quits within separations fell to 3.88 million and layoffs and discharges rose 16% or 241,000 to 1.7 million.

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services increased slightly in January after exports rose faster than imports, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Wednesday.

Exports increased 3.4% and soared 13.3% to $257.5 billion. Imports rose 3.0% from the previous month and jumped 3.5% to $325.7 billion. Overall trade deficit for goods and services increased 1.6% from the previous month but fell 21.9% from the previous year to $68.3 billion.

U.S. private payrolls increased by 242,000 in February, higher than the revised 119,000 increase in January. The February's gains were driven by 190,000 additions in the service sector and 52,000 increase in the manufacturing sector. Overall wage gains decelerated to 7.2%.