US job openings decline in June, quits little changed

The US jobs market tightened up a bit as economic growth slowed, the results of a closely-followed survey revealed.

According to the Department of Labor, the number of job openings fell at a month-on-month pace of 5.4% in June to reach 10.698m (consensus: 10.994m).

Hiring meanwhile slipped by 2.0% on the month to 6.374m.

Voluntary separations or so-called 'quits' however fell by approximately 0.9% versus May to 4.237m, but the quits rate was unchanged at 2.8%.

Quits are widely considered a useful indicator of labour demand in so far as they determined by people's ability to find better job alternatives.

Commenting on the results of the latest JOLTS survey, Oren Klachkin, senior lead US economist at Oxford Economics, said labor demand had softened further, as reflected in the third consecutive monthly drop in job openings.

Even so, while the job openings rate had declined from 6.9% for May to 6.6% in June, he noted that it remained "well above" its pre-pandemic rate of 4.4%.

Klachkin's forecast for Friday's non-farm payrolls report was for an increase of 260,000 and for the unemployment rate to hold at 3.6%.