JOLTS job openings declines in May
- Prior month 10.103M revised to 10.320M
- The number of job openings decreased to 9.8 million on the last business day of May, a drop of 496,000 from April.
- The job openings rate declined by 0.3 percentage points to 5.9%.
- Health care and social assistance saw the largest decrease in job openings (-285,000), followed by finance and insurance (-139,000), and other services (-78,000).
- Job openings increased in educational services (+45,000), state and local government education (+37,000), and the federal government (+24,000).
- The number and rate of hires in May were mostly unchanged at 6.2 million and 4.0%, respectively. There was an increase in hires in durable goods manufacturing (+41,000).
- The number and rate of total separations, including quits, layoffs and discharges, and other separations, changed little at 5.9 million and 3.8%, respectively.
- The number of quits increased to 4.0 million (+250,000), with the rate rising to 2.6%. Health care and social assistance (+69,000) and construction (+57,000) saw an increase in quits.
- The number of layoffs and discharges remained stable at 1.6 million, with the rate staying at 1.0%. Retail trade saw an increase in layoffs and discharges (+87,000).
- The number of other separations remained largely unchanged in May at 301,000.
The quits rate moving higher is indicative of a stronger jobs industry. People normally don’t quit their job when jobs are not available. However, the overall job openings were less than expectations, and also below last month’s level, which is balancing the report a bit.
Also of note is the data is for May. So there is some timeliness or lack thereof in this report.
Stocks remain under pressure with the NASDAQ index now down around 1.5%. The S&P is down -1.25% and the Dow industrial average is down -1.22%.
The US dollar is moving higher.