The U.S. Labor Department reported on Wednesday that job openings fell to their lowest level in three-and-a-half years in July, another sign of labor market weakness.
Relevant departments pay close attention to Job vacancy and labor turnover surveys It showed that available positions fell to 7.67 million positions that month, 237,000 fewer than the downwardly revised figure in June and the lowest level since January 2021.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 8.1 million.
As job openings fell, the job openings ratio per available worker fell to less than 1.1, about half of its peak of more than 2 to 1 in early 2022.
The data could provide further ammunition to Fed officials, who are widely expected to begin cutting interest rates at their next policy meeting on September 17-18. Fed officials closely monitor the JOLTS report as an indicator of labor market strength.
“The labor market is no longer cooling to pre-pandemic temperatures but has exceeded them,” said Nick Bunker, director of economic research at Indeed Hiring Labs. “No one, least of all Fed policymakers, should want the labor market to be at this point. Cool down.”
Although the number of job vacancies fell, the number of layoffs increased to 1.76 million, an increase of 202,000 from June. The total number of separations increased by 336,000, with the turnover rate rising to 3.4% of the workforce. However, hiring also increased, with an increase of 273,000 people this month, a growth rate of 3.5%, 0.2 percentage points higher than in June.
The report comes two days ahead of key August non-farm payrolls data due on Friday from the Labor Department. The report projected an increase of 161,000 jobs and a drop in the unemployment rate to 4.2%.
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