Job openings were supposed to fall by about 10% but instead actually increased, according to the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- M-O-M: The number of job openings was little changed at 11.2 million on the last business day of July, a increase of over June’s 11M and much higher than economist predictions of a drop to 10.45M.
- Y-O-Y: Job openings are higher by 300k from the same time one year ago.
Job openings increased in transportation, warehousing, and utilities by 81,000 followed by arts, entertainment, & recreation (+53,000) and federal government (+47,000).
Great resignation continues. The number of quits was little changed at 4.2 million with health care and social assistance reporting 73,000 fewer quits while quits increased in transportation, warehousing, and utilities with 39,000 more.
- Layoff were little changed at 1.4 million with change in any industry.
Labor market remains resilient. Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics told the New York Times that “The job market remains surprisingly resilient to the Fed’s best efforts to cool it off…The Fed desperately wants job growth to slow and unemployment to stabilize, even rise a bit, to quell wage and price pressures.”