The US job openings increased in August and surpassed expectations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report shared on Wednesday. The surge in job openings came after two months of declines, signaling a rebounding labor market.
According to JOLTS data, there were 8.04 million job openings for the month of August, marking a 329,000 increase compared to July’s revised figure of 7.711 million. Economists, on the other hand, expected just a slight increase to 7.682 million compared to the initial July figure of 7.67 million.
Most jobs were open in the construction, transportation, and warehousing sectors. The number of available jobs took a decline in finances, entertainment, and art.
In total, there were 1.13 available jobs for every person looking for a job in August. This is also an improvement from 1.08 available jobs in the month prior.
On the other hand, hirings, layoffs, and resignations all declined. A total of 5.317 million workers were hired, representing a 99,000 dip, while layoffs came at 1.608 million after a slide of 105,000. There were 3.084 million resignations, the lowest since 2020.
“The increase in job openings is encouraging, but we’ve got to string together a few months of improving job openings,” Ryan Sweet, chief US economist at Oxford Economics, said in a chat with CNN. “The key for the labor market boils down to the hires rate and the layoffs rate.”