US job openings drop unexpectedly in October

Labour demand in the States eased a bit in October, the results of a closely followed survey revealed.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor's JOLTS survey, the number of job openings in the U.S. decreased from 9.35m in September to 8,733m for October.

That was their lowest level since March 2021.

Economists had penciled in a reading of 9.4m.

In parallel, the number of hires dipped by 0.3% over the month to reach 5.886, while the number of total separations rose by 0.9% on the month to 5.646m.

The so-called 'quits' rate, which tracks the number of voluntary separations by workers from their employers, was unchanged at 2.3%.

"The ratio of job openings to the number of unemployed fell to 1.34, its lowest since August 2021, suggesting that the labor market is coming into a better balance between the supply and demand of labor," said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead US economist at Oxford Economics.

"Evidence of cooler labor market conditions will keep further rate hikes off the table, but we don't expect rate cuts until Q3 of next year. The Fed needs to be convinced that inflation is on a path back to 2% and we expect the progress toward that goal to occur gradually over the next several months."