The number of job openings in the U.S. economy edged lower to 9.58 million in June, dropping by 34,000 from a downwardly revised 9.61 million in May, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Tuesday. It’s the smallest number of job openings recorded in the monthly report since April 2021, and a significant decline from the peak of 12 million recorded in March 2022.
Layoffs in June moved slightly lower, as well, falling to 1.53 million from 1.55 million in May. The number of quits also dropped, falling by 295,000 to 3.8 million.
The latest data provide more evidence that the labor market continues to cool, a positive sign for Federal Reserve policymakers as they seek to control inflation by slowing the economy.
“This is definitely heading in the Goldilocks direction,” Rachel Sederberg, senior economist at labor analytics firm Lightcast, told CNBC. “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.”
Stephen Stanley, chief U.S. economist at Santander U.S. Capital Markets, said the labor market remains healthy even as it cools. “The pattern is pretty clear so far this year that what we’re seeing is incremental slowing rather than a dramatic collapse in the labor market,” he said, per The Wall Street Journal.
One closely watched measure of the strength of the labor market remained well above its historical norm, with the ratio of job openings to unemployed workers little changed at 1.6. Before the pandemic scrambled the job market, that ratio was typically closer to 1.2.
“The data on layoffs show just how resilient employer demand for workers remains,” Nick Bunker, the head of economic research at Indeed Hiring Lab, said, per Bloomberg. “Layoff data, a loud emergency siren during economic downturns, are instead signaling a muted ‘all’s well’ for current employees.”
