Job vacancies and layoffs edged lower in June, according to a Labor Department report Tuesday that points to a stable labor market.
Employment openings totaled 9.58 million for the month, edging lower from the downwardly revised 9.62 million in May, the department said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. That was the lowest level of openings since April 2021 and below the 9.7 million estimate from FactSet.
Along with that, the JOLTS report said layoffs nudged down to 1.53 million, after totaling 1.55 million in May.
Economists were watching the two data points closely for clues about the direction of a labor market that has proven surprisingly resilient despite a series of Federal Reserve interest rate hikes aimed at slowing the economy and inflation.
“This is definitely heading in the Goldilocks direction,” said Rachel Sederberg, senior economist at labor analytics firm Lightcast. “We still have a long way to go, and we still have a very high number of openings, especially as compared to where we were pre-pandemic. But we’re heading in the right direction and we’re doing so in a calm manner, which is what we want to see.”
Declines in both job openings and layoffs indicate that demand for labor is slowing, as the Fed hopes, while companies are still retaining workers, indicating that the unemployment rate is unlikely to spike anytime soon.
The JOLTS report is a key indicator for the Fed, as it ponders what to do next after having raised interest rates a total of 5.25 percentage points since March 2022.
“A variety of economic data show the U.S. economy was cruising in the second quarter. The June JOLTS data is no exception,” said Nick Bunker, head of economic research for the Indeed Hiring Lab. “The pace of the current slowdown may be too gradual for many policymakers at the Federal Reserve, as job openings are only gradually declining. But workers have much to celebrate and still possess substantial leverage.”
The June total for job openings…
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