Dollar surges as US job openings hit two-year high, JOLTS survey shows

The number of job openings in the States registered its largest increase in almost two years, the results of a widely-followed survey revealed.

According to the US Department of Labor's JOLTS survey, the number of openings jumped by 461,000 in June to reach 6.163m from an upwardly revised 5.702m for May.

Economists had forecast a reading of 5.75m.

Yet hiring slipped from 5.46m to 5.36m.

Similarly, only 3.13m Americans 'quit' their jobs in that month, down from 3.21m in May.

That saw the so-called 'quit' rate slip from 2.2% to 2.1%, while layoffs edged up from 1.67m to 1.7m.

Poignantly, there were only 1.1 persons out of work competing for each vacancy, versus 1.9 at the end of 2007.