U.S. employers posted 7.2 million job vacancies in July as the American labour market continues to cool.
The Labor Department reported Wednesday that job openings fell from 7.4 million in June and came in modestly below what economists had forecast.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) showed that layoffs rose slightly. The number of Americans quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in their ability to find better pay, opportunities or working conditions elsewhere — was almost unchanged from June at 3.2 million.
Job openings remain at healthy levels but have fallen steadily since peaking at a record 12.1 million in March 2022 as the U.S. economy roared back from Covid lockdowns.
The U.S. job market has lost momentum this year, partly because of the lingering effects of 11 interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve in 2022 and 2023, and partly because President Donald Trump’s trade wars have created uncertainty that is paralyzing managers making hiring decisions.
On Friday, the Labor Department will release unemployment and hiring numbers for August. They are expected to show that businesses, government agencies and nonprofits added nearly 80,000 jobs last month, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet. That would mark a modest improvement over the disappointing 73,000 created in July.
Worse than the lacklustre July hiring figures were Labor Department revisions that cut 258,000 jobs from May and June payrolls. A furious Trump responded to the numbers by firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the agency that compiles the data and nominating a partisan ideologue to replace her.
So far this year, the economy has been generating 85,000 jobs a month, down from 168,000 last year and an average 400,000 a month during the hiring boom of 2021-23.
In a time of uncertainty, employers are less likely to hire, but they’re not letting workers go either. Layoffs remain below pre-pandemic levels.