The number of available jobs fell for the second straight month, measuring a seasonally adjusted 9.582 million, or 1.6 jobs per job seeker. The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey report shows that vacancies ticked down from a revised 9.61 million in May and shrank considerably since peaking north of 12 million in March 2022. Economists were expecting 9.61 million openings, according to Refinitiv estimates.
On a monthly basis, the June JOLTS report also showed that the number of new hires fell to 5.91 million from 6.23 million, quits dropped to 3.722 million from 4.067 million, and layoffs ticked down to 1.527 million from 1.546 million. The US labor market is slowly getting back into balance, but business needs still outstrip the number of Americans looking for work, a lopsidedness that the Federal Reserve views as feeding into demand and, consequently, inflation.