The U.S. had 7.6 million open positions last month, well above economist expectations of around 7.3 million
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The U.S. labor market posted 7.6 million job openings in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday, holding roughly flat from April and clearing economist forecasts by a wide margin. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had penciled in 7.3 million openings as their median forecast.
The job openings rate stayed at 4.6%, the same as in April. Wholesale trade saw the biggest increase, adding 71,000 openings in May. Construction and leisure and hospitality also grew, while financial activities continued to decline for a second month.
Despite the steady demand for workers, hiring activity pulled back. Total hires were unchanged at 5.2 million, and the hires rate held at 3.3%. The quits rate — a measure of voluntary separations that economists use as a proxy for worker confidence — was also unchanged at 1.9%. Layoffs and discharges came in at 1.7 million, unchanged from April.
A separate metric closely watched by Federal Reserve policymakers — how many open positions exist for each jobless worker — held steady near parity. That compares with a peak reading of two vacancies per unemployed person reached in 2022.
The May report extends a pattern established over recent months. The U.S. posted 7.6 million job openings in April — a gain of 731,000 from March that also beat forecasts — driven almost entirely by a surge in professional and business services. That sector's openings were little changed in May, suggesting the April jump was not a one-month anomaly. Taken together, the data reinforce a pattern that has defined the labor market for much of the past year: activity on both the hiring and separation sides of the ledger has remained sluggish, with workers and employers alike showing little urgency to make moves.
Other labor market indicators heading into Tuesday's release had presented a mixed picture. Separate tracking indexes from Indeed and LinkUp had pointed to a softening in online listings over the first half of the year, a trend analysts at Pantheon Macroeconomics attributed in part to elevated uncertainty and the energy-price effects of the Middle East conflict, CNN noted. The JOLTS data suggest that softness in online postings has not translated into a pullback in formally measured labor demand.
The U.S. economy added 172,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in May, with the unemployment rate holding at 4.3% for a third straight month. June employment data are scheduled for release on Thursday.
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