Number of 'quits' in US hits new high in July, JOLTS survey shows

US job market conditions continued to be tight in July, according to the results of a closely-followed survey.

According to the Department of Commerce's JOLTS survey, the number of job openings was little changed from the month before in July at 7.217m, versus 7.248m for June.

More significantly, the so-called 'quits' rate, which tracks voluntary separations, denoting workers' confidence in their ability to find another job, rose from 2.3% in the month before to 2.4% or by 130,000 to 3.592.0m, marking a new high for the data series.

Total separations meanwhile, which include quits, increased from 5.513m to 5.759m, pushing the separation rate from 3.6% back to 3.8%.

In parallel, the number of new hires jumped by 237,000 to reach 5.953m.