US JOLTS data show openings remained solid in June

The US Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for June reported that total job openings fell slightly, to 5.249mn, from a downwardly revised 5.357mn in May. The decline was modestly larger than consensus expectations, which had looked for a small decline to 5.35mn from the initial May estimate of 5.363mn. The move lower was led by the goods-producing sector, as well as leisure and hospitality. As a share of total employment, however, the openings rate was unchanged at 3.6% in June. The openings rate for private industry fell one-tenth from its post-recession high, to 3.8%. Hiring improved modestly on the month, with the total hires rate up one-tenth, to 3.7%, led by manufacturing and trade, transportation and utilities.

The quits rate, an indicator of labor market confidence, was unchanged for the total and private industry levels at 1.9% and 2.2%, respectively. Layoffs ticked higher in June (1.3%, previous: 1.2%), which pushed up the total separations rate a bit (3.5%, previous: 3.4%). Despite the decline in total job openings, the ratio of unemployed job seekers to job openings reached a fresh post-recession low on the month of 1.58 (previous: 1.62).

"We view this metric as an indicator of labor market slack and see its continued downward trend as supportive of our optimistic outlook for US labor markets. Labor demand should hold up over the next several quarters, in turn supporting solid household income growth and further consumption gains", says Barclays.