The US labor market added fewer job openings than expected in July, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting 7.271 million vacancies in its latest JOLTS release. Economists had penciled in roughly 7.313 million, making the miss small in absolute terms but meaningful in what it signals: the long, slow normalization of the labor market is still very much underway.
The figure did represent a modest uptick from June’s 7.182 million openings.
The numbers behind the numbers
The job openings rate held steady at 4.4%, unchanged from the prior month.
Hires and total separations both came in flat at 5.1 million. Quits registered at 3.1 million, while layoffs totaled 1.7 million.
