Job openings top 11.2 million in July, well above estimate and nearly double the available workers

An “Now Hiring” sign was posted in a Home Depot location on August 05th, 2022 in San Rafael.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Tuesday, there was nearly one million more job opportunities than predicted in July. It is an indication that the U.S. labour market remains extremely tight.

The number of available positions was 11.24 Million for the month. This is well above the 10.3million FactSet estimate. Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. It was almost 200,000 more than the June total of 11.04 millions, an amount that has been revised from 10.7million.

Federal Reserve officers closely examine the JOLTS figures for indications of weakness in hiring.

According to July’s numbers, there was still a significant shortage of available workers. Currently available workers are outnumbering those who have openings by less than a 2:1 margin. Inflationary is the result of employers offering higher wages to workers to lure them in a period when they are experiencing rapid price increases.

This month’s hiring declined to 6.38million. The closely monitored indicator of worker confidence was also down at 4.18million. This is because the percentage of workers leaving their job fell one-tenth to 2.7%. However, this number remains high in historical terms.

It has been lucrative to change jobs during this period. CovidThis era saw switchers experiencing an average 6.7% annual wage increase rate. That’s well above the 4.9% rate for those who have remained in their jobs. according to the Atlanta Fed.

As the July rate edged lower at 3.9%, total separations dropped slightly to 5.93 million. Just under 1.4million saw little change in discharges or layoffs.

Three days before Friday’s closely-watched August nonfarm payrolls report from the BLS, the JOLTS Report comes out three days earlier. Dow Jones expects growth to be 318,000. However, the numbers for job openings add upside potential to that number as businesses continue to seek out employees.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, at the last month’s meeting, noted an “extremely tightly labor market” as part of his comments about efforts by central banks to lower inflation.

Powell stated that continued hikes would likely result in “below trend economic growth” and some weakening of labor market conditions.

“But such results are likely necessary in order to restore price stability, to set the scene for maximum employment and stabilized prices over the long-term,” he said.

However, the Fed’s rate rises may not slow growth in the way it hopes. There are still signs of strong demand for workers.

The Fed is expected to announce a third successive three-quarter point increase in interest rates at its September meeting. Traders increased their odds of this happening. CME Group data indicated that there was an increase of 76.5% in the likelihood for such a move, compared to a mere half-point.

CyberSEO Lite (https://www.cyberseo.net/cyberseo-lite)A freeware, full-text RSS Article Import Plugin for WordPress.

Related Posts