Minneapolis
CNN
—
The number of job openings among U.S. employers rose unexpectedly in August, evidence of the continued strength of the labor market, according to new data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
There were an estimated 9.61 million job openings in August, according to seasonally adjusted data from the BLS’s most recent monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report. That’s up from July’s upwardly revised estimate of 8.92 million openings.
Economists’ consensus estimate was 8.8 million openings, according to Refinitiv.
According to the report, some of the largest bidding jumps occurred in professional and business services, finance, other services and consumer goods manufacturing.
While the increase in job vacancies in August withstood a three-month decline, the number of available jobs remains well below the record high of 12.03 million in spring 2022, according to JOLTS estimates. Year to date, job openings are averaging 9.74 million per month . BLS data show.
Additionally, data from online job boards shows that job postings have already fallen to pre-pandemic levels and in some cases even below, Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, told CNN.
“The [JOLTS] Series is very zigzag; Because it’s based on such a small sample, there’s quite a bit of statistical noise,” she said. “So we definitely shouldn’t read too much into one month. The longer-term trend is a gradual return to pre-pandemic levels.”
Other key measures of labor movement collected as part of the JOLTS report showed minimal movement.
The number of new hires rose to 5.86 million from 5.82 million in July, the number of workers who quit their jobs rose to 3.64 million from 3.62 million and the number of layoffs remained constant at 1.68 Millions.
Additionally, despite the increase in job openings in August, the increase in the number of people returning to the workforce means there are still 1.5 job openings for every unemployed person looking for a job, BLS data shows. This time last year, that ratio was 1.7.
Federal Reserve officials have frequently pointed to the robust labor market, and particularly the imbalance between job openings and job seekers, as a key factor in reducing inflation.
“The Fed’s massive rate hikes are absolutely crushing core consumer inflation, but the labor market has escaped the wrath of tighter monetary policy as job opening weakness seen earlier in the summer has been offset by vacancies,” said Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at FwdBonds.
Investors balked at the unexpected increase. Stocks fell in morning trading, the three major indexes fell into the red and the Dow fell more than 300 points.
This story is evolving and will be updated.
Comments are closed.