Job openings plunge in June to lowest level since 2021

Aug. 2 (UPI) -- The number of job openings in June dropped to its lowest level since September as the labor market showed signs of slowing, according to new numbers released Tuesday.

The number of job openings fell by 605,000, or 5.4%, to 10.7 million in June, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reported 11.25 million openings in May.

Despite June's sharp drop in employment opportunities, there were still plenty of jobs with 1.8 open jobs per available worker.

The biggest drop in available jobs was in retail with 343,000 fewer openings in June. Larger companies also offered fewer jobs, while the number of jobs offered by smaller employers went up.

Hiring for the month of June in all industries remained little changed, dropping 2% to 6.4 million.

Total separations, which include quitting, layoffs, retirement or death, remained the same at 5.9 million. The number of people who quit their jobs in June did not change much from the month before at 4.2 million, but was down from the record levels seen earlier this year.

Fewer construction workers left their jobs in June, dropping by 51,000. The number of people quitting education jobs increased by 14,000.

Lay-offs mostly stayed the same for June with 1.3 million workers being let go.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' JOLTS numbers often influence how the Federal Reserve assesses the future of the labor market and any potential interest rate hikes.

So far this year, the Fed has enacted four interest rate hikes, including a second 0.75% hike last week, totaling 2.25 percentage points to tame the highest inflation in 40 years.