US job openings decline in July

The number of job openings at US companies declined in July, according to data released on Tuesday.

In seasonally-adjusted terms, the number of job openings fell to 8.827m from 9.165m in June, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS. This marked the lowest openings total since March 2021 and was below the 9.465m expected by economists.

The figures also showed that the number of new hires fell to 5.773m from 5.94m, while quits declined to 3.549m from 3.802m. Layoffs ticked up to 1.555m from 1.551m.

Quits are seen by some economists as a useful gauge of employees' confidence of their ability to find alternate employment on better conditions and hence of the underlying robustness of the jobs market.