U.S. July job openings lower than expected at 7.7 million

Sept. 4 (UPI) -- U.S. job openings in July were at three and a half year low and were significantly fewer than expected by Dow Jones economists, according to a Wednesday Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary showed the number of job openings at the end of July was 7.7 million, little changed from June and down by 1.1 million from the same period in 2023.

The job openings rate was 4.6%, also little changed from June.

Job openings decreased by 187,000 in health care and social assistance, by 101,000 in state and local government job openings and by 88,000 in transportation, warehousing and utilities.

Layoffs increased to 1.7 million, up from 1.5 million in June, according to the BLS.

The BLS said there were 5.5 million hires in July and separations from employment increased to 5.4 million.

" The labor market is no longer cooling down to its pre-pandemic temperature, it's dropped past it," said Indeed Hiring Lab's Nick Bunker in a statement. "Nobody, and certainly not policymakers at the Federal Reserve , should want the labor market to get any cooler at this point."

June job openings were revised down by 274,000 to 7.9 million.

By region, the most job openings were in the South at 3.4 million. The West and Midwest had 1.7 million openings each in July while the Northeast had the fewest at 1.4 million.

The U.S. economy created 114,000 jobs in July, well below expectations. The unemployment rate in July was 4.3%, highest since the pandemic era.

All of this economic data strengthens the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in September.