Job opportunities decreased in June, indicating that the Federal Reserve’s high interest rates are causing a temporary cooling of the labour market.
June job opportunities fell to only 8.18 million, a drop of about 941, 000 from a year ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in an upgrade to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. It is the second-lowest checking since President Joe Biden took office and the lowest browsing since April.
Job opportunities have trended down in the past few years, a sign that the employment industry is beginning to lighten under the weight of the Federal Reserve’s strengthening.
Hiring has also slowed. Importantly, the workers price dropped to 3.4 % last month, the lowest since 2014, apart from a small decline during the basin of the epidemic in 2020.
” The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey ( JOLTS ) report, published by the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, indicates a steadier slowdown in hires over the course of 2023 and 2024″, Vanguard economists wrote in a note on Tuesday’s report. ” Government data showing a hiring decline this year and a rise in the unemployment rate from 3.5 % in July 2023 to 4.1 % in June 2024 have stirred fears of a U. S. recession”.
About 3.3 million employees quit their jobs in June, little changed from the quarter before. The number is equivalent to about 2.1 % of the workplace.
Employees who quit their jobs for a reason, including those who left their past jobs for a different one, and those who are confident they will find new ones, are included in the number of leaves.
Even of note in Tuesday’s JOLTS review, cuts and releases were little changed, at 1.5 million in June.
For context, regular employment opportunities peaked in March 2022, the second month the Fed hiked interest charges, at over 12 million, so the most recent figures mark about a 33 % decrease from that period.
Even as the Fed increases interest rates, the labor market has remained fairly resilient despite recent Shocks studies that showed indications of softening.
The economy added 206, 000 work in June, and the unemployment rate rose a tenth of a percentage point to 4.1 %, the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported. Despite a slight increase in the employment rate in recent months, the unemployment rate is still at a historically low 4.1 %. Friday will see the release of the next employment report.
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Other financial measures provide hints about the economy’s endurance. The Bureau of Economic Analysis released a preliminary estimate on Thursday that the GDP increased at a solid 2.8 % seasonally adjusted annual rate during the second quarter of this year.
