Summary
- US July job openings totaled 7.271 million, below both the market forecast of 7.33 million and the previous month’s 7.359 million.
- The July job openings rate edged up to 4.4%, but new hiring and the hiring rate fell from the previous month to 5.054 million and 3.2%, respectively.
- The Labor Department’s JOLTS report showed labor-market demand was not as strong as expected after job openings missed estimates, though demand for workers does not appear to have weakened sharply.
Forecast Trend Report by Period
US job openings fell short of market expectations in July, pointing to some cooling in labor demand.
The Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, released on September 1 showed 7.271 million openings in July. That was below the market forecast of 7.33 million and down from 7.359 million in the previous month.
The job openings rate edged up to 4.4% in July from 4.3% a month earlier. Hiring fell to 5.054 million from 5.332 million, while the hiring rate slipped to 3.2% from 3.4%.
Voluntary quits totaled about 3.1 million, while layoffs and discharges were about 1.7 million, little changed from the previous month. Total separations also held near 5.1 million.
JOLTS is a key employment indicator tracking labor demand among US companies. July’s weaker-than-expected openings figure may signal that labor-market demand is not as strong as markets had anticipated. Still, job openings were above the prior month’s revised figure, suggesting demand has not contracted sharply.
Separately, the US ISM manufacturing PMI released at the same time came in at 54.6 in August. That was below both the market forecast of 55.2 and the previous month’s 55.6. Even so, the index remained above the 50 threshold, indicating the manufacturing sector stayed in expansion.
Minseung Kang
minriver@bloomingbit.ioBlockchain journalist | Writer of Trade Now & Altcoin Now, must-read content for investors.