U.S. job openings slipped to 9.9 million in February, fewest since May 2021 and a sign that the job market may be starting to cool, which would be welcome news for the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve.

Vacancies fell from 10.6 million in January, the Labor Department said Tuesday, notably in healthcare and in professional services, which includes managerial and technical jobs. Openings rose for construction workers.

Despite the drop, the number of layoffs ticked lower in February, and more Americans quit their jobs — a sign of confidence they can find better pay or working conditions elsewhere.

“The strongest labor market since the 1960s is starting to show a few cracks,’’ Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at the research firm FWDBONDS LLC, wrote in a research note.

Britain’s privacy watchdog has hit TikTok with a multimillion-dollar penalty for misusing children’s data and violating other protections for users’ personal information.

The Information Commissioner’s Office said Tuesday that it issued a $15.9 million fine to the short-video sharing app, which is wildly popular with young people. The watchdog says TikTok allowed as many as 1.4 million children in the U.K. under 13 to use the app despite the platform’s own rules prohibiting children that young from setting up accounts.

The company says it works to keep the platform safe and off-limits to kids under 13.

“There are laws in place to make sure our children are as safe in the digital world as they are in the physical world. TikTok did not abide by those laws,” Information Commissioner John Edwards said in a press release.