The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, from the Labor Department on Tuesday also showed the number of people quitting their jobs dropping to levels last seen in early 2021, indicating Americans were becoming less confident in the labor market.
"Although the labor market is still tight, the degree of excess demand is declining and is coming about through companies reducing the number of vacancies rather than increasing layoffs and unemployment," said Conrad DeQuadros, senior economic adviser at Brean Capital in New York. "There is plenty here to make the case that not only is the labor market rebalancing but, at this point, it is doing so without pushing up unemployment.
The decrease was led by the professional and business services sector, where job openings dropped 198,000. There were 130,000 fewer vacancies in health care and social assistance, while open positions fell 67,000 in state and local government, excluding education. But the jobless rate could creep up in August. The Conference Board's so-called labor market differential, derived from data on respondents' views on whether jobs are plentiful or hard to get, narrowed to 26.2% this month from 32.4% in July. This measure correlates to the unemployment rate in the Labor Department's closely followed employment report.