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Job Openings Reach Lowest Numbers Since March 2021
Job openings in the United States decreased far more than anticipated in July, indicating that the job market may be loosening up a little bit.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, conducted by the Labor Department revealed on Tuesday that there were 8.827 million open positions as of the end of July. Analysts predicted 9.559 million jobs.
The estimate of openings for the previous month was reduced from 9.582 million to 9.165 million, showing that the labor market was not as robust as first believed.
Professional and business services saw a dramatic 198,000 decline in job vacancies. Postings for social assistance and health care decreased by 130,000. Openings at local and state government schools decreased by 62,000. There are now 27,000 fewer openings in the federal government.
Manufacturing job openings decreased from 580,000 to 555,000. Nonetheless, manufacturing hiring increased somewhat from 396,000 to 402,000.
There were 101,000 more opportunities for information jobs. Job vacancies in transportation, warehousing, and utilities increased by 75,000.
Despite fewer opportunities, there are still few layoffs. Nothing changed from July to July in terms of the 1.6 million layoffs and discharges, or about 1% of the labor force.
There were 3.5 million fewer quits than the month before, a reduction of 253,000. The fundamental indicator of employee confidence in the labor market, the quit rate, showed little change at 2.3 percent.
The ratio of available jobs to unemployed people also decreased, reaching its lowest point in more than a year at 1.51. In its efforts to reduce inflation, the Federal Reserve is likely to view the drop in openings and the ratio of openings to unemployment as positive developments.
Despite recent drops, there are still a lot more job vacancies than there were before the outbreak. There are 6.995 million openings in February 2020. Openings reached their highest point in the pre-pandemic era in November 2018, when they reached 7.594 million.
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