US job openings, hiring and quits decline

Job openings in the U.S. were little changed in June but hiring and quits declined.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms the number of job openings fell at a month-on-month pace of 0.4% to reach 9.58m.

Economists had penciled in 9.62m.

However, the previous month's level of job openings was revised down from 9.82m to 9.61m.

In parallel, hiring was down 5.2% on the month to 5.91m while voluntary separations or so-called 'quits' fell by 7.2% to 3.77m.

That pushed the quits rate down by two tenths of a percentage point in comparison to May to reach 2.4%.

"Though we expect last week's rate increase to be the last, risks are tilted towards additional tightening if the Fed determines the data warrant it. June's job openings report sits squarely in the middle - continued, clear progress, but at potentially too slow a pace for the Fed's liking," said Matthew Martin, U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.

"We anticipate similar results from July's employment report, with job gains only slowing marginally."